In history-landing a man on the moon before the end of the decade.Īs NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe said when he announced Under Webb's direction, the agency undertook one of the most impressive projects A Fitting HonorĪt the height of the Apollo program, NASA had 35,000 employees and more thanĤ00,000 contractors in thousands of companies and universities across the U.S. Within a few months, Webb proved where he stood. NASA Headquarters had wanted someone with a keen interest in space scienceĪnd a desire to bolster the involvement of universities in the space program. The scientific community was equally anxious about Webb. Who could handle the large issues of national and international policies. To Webb that the NASA Administrator's job was a policy job. Skills, Webb was perfect for the job, the President believed. With his keen political savvy and exceptional managerial Someone who knew more about rocketry, about space, would be a better person." Kennedyĭid not see it that way. Life, and I was not really the best person for this anyway. He told an interviewer that, "I felt that I had made the pattern of my To consider the job as NASA Administrator. He was not, however,Ī scientist or engineer-something he noted when President Kennedy asked him Webb also servedĪs president and vice president of several private firms and served on theīoard of directors of the McDonnell Aircraft Company. The North Carolina native had served as Director of the Bureau of the BudgetĪnd as Undersecretary of State in the Truman administration. An experienced manager, attorney and businessman, This record of accomplishment is perhaps more notable given Webb's initial Participate in NASA's Space Science Program and to publicly support all of The program also encouraged university presidents and vice presidents to actively Of new laboratories at universities and provided fellowships for graduate students. Program, which established grants for space research, funded the construction In the selection process of science missions and he created the NASA University He enhanced the role of scientists in key ways. That his predecessor had adopted for the selection of science programs. The job vacated by Keith Glennan, Webb chose to continue the same basic organization Webb supported science behind the scenes, as well. The most successful period of astronomical discovery in history, which continues Missions such as the Orbiting Solar ObservatoryĪnd the Explorer series of astronomical satellites built the foundation for Stars and galaxies, our own Sun and the as-yet unknown environment of spaceĪbove the Earth's atmosphere. July 1969, NASA had launched more than 75 space science missions to study the Telescope, then known as the Large Space Telescope, should become a major NASAīy the time Webb retired just a few months before the first moon landing in As early as 1965, Webb also had written that a major space So that astronauts could do so later, and it sent scientific probes to MarsĪnd Venus, giving Americans their first-ever view of the strange landscape In the development of robotic spacecraft, which explored the lunar environment Research that remains unparalleled today. Webb's vision of a balanced program resulted in a decade of space science That does the job for the country." Webb's vision If you want me to be the administrator, it's going to be a balanced program He was quoted as saying in one transcript, "And so farĪs I'm concerned, I'm not going to run a program that's just a one-shot program. In Austin, Texas, Webb recalled his conversations with Kennedy and Vice President Human space flight and science because such a combination would serve as aĬatalyst for strengthening the nation's universities and aerospace industry.Īs part of an oral history project sponsored by the LBJ Library He believed that NASA had to strike a balance between President John Kennedy had committed the nation to landing a man on the moonīefore the end of the decade, Webb believed that the space program was more Webb's record of support for space science would support those views. Ran the fledgling space agency from February 1961 to October 1968, did moreįor science than perhaps any other government official and that it is onlyįitting that the Next Generation Space Telescope would be named after him. Space Telescope is most commonly linked to the Apollo moon program, not to The man whose name NASA has chosen to bestow upon the successor to the Hubble He believed that NASA had to strike a balance between human space flight and science. Webb ran the fledgling space agency from February 1961 to October 1968.
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