American Moonshot

by Douglas Brinkley

  Bulganin, Nikolai, 140

  Bulkeley, John D., 55

  Bull, Stephen, 458

  Bumper 8 rocket, 146

  Bundy, McGeorge, xvi, 223, 331, 416, 422, 423

  Burgess, Colin, 373, 376

  Burka, Paul, 365

  Burke, Arleigh, 239

  Burkley, George, 422

  Busby, Horace, 148

  Bush, George H. W., 436

  Bush, Prescott, 259–60

  Bush, Vannevar, 187

  Bykovsky, Valery, 378

  Byrd, Robert C., 112

  Cambridge, MA, xxi, 25, 83, 413

  Canterbury School, New Milford, CT, 23, 24

  Cape Canaveral, FL (later Cape Kennedy), xiv, xxi, 52, 198, 210–11; Apollo launches and, 298–99, 431–32; Aurora 7 mission, 344–46, 347; Bumper 8 launch, 146; expansion of, 299; Explorer 1 launch, 156; failed launches, 147, 249–50; Freedom 7 mission, 238–40, 239; Friendship 7 mission, 321–25; JFK and, 324–25, 327; JFK’s space tour and, 354; JFK visiting, Nov. 16, 1963, 412, 431–32, 433; Launch Operations Center, 354; location of, 146, 299; Mariner 2 launch, 395; Mercury Control, 261; Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge and, 300; post-Gagarin frustration, 228; renaming of, 444; rocket testing at, 107, 114, 142, 145–47, 155, 157, 211; rocket transport to, 296; Sigma 7 mission, 381–82; as technological campus, 432; towns surrounding, 299–300. See also specific missions

  Cape Kennedy Air Force Station, 444

  Cardin, Pierre, 328

  Caro, Robert, 118

  Carpenter, Malcolm S., 182–83, 184

  Carpenter, Patty, 442

  Carpenter, Rene, 189, 345

  Carpenter, Scott, xi, 315, 321, 343–46; Aurora 7 mission, 344–46, 347, 403, 453; JFK and, 345–46; JFK’s assassination and, 442–43

  Carson, Rachel, 131, 300

  Carter, Marshall, 383

  Castro, Fidel, 232

  CBS, 234; News, 147, 177, 234, 261, 268, 289–90, 293–94, 321, 322, 444, 448; radio, 5, 22, 116, 133, 268

  Celeste, Vincent, 104

  Cernan, Gene, 238

  Chaffee, Roger, 451

  Chamberlain, Neville, 30–31, 36, 37

  Chelomey, Vladimir, 220

  Chennault, Claire, 433

  Chicago Daily News, 199

  Chinese Communist Revolution, 103

  Choate School, Wallingford, CT, 23–24

  Chrysler Corporation, xi, 184, 392

  Churchill, Winston, 37, 61, 68, 75, 85, 127, 139

  CIA (Central Intelligence Agency): “A Brief Look at the Soviet Space Program,” 425–26; concerns about JFK’s peace overtures, 426; Corona spy satellite, 152, 243; National Photographic Interpretation Center, 152–53; on Soviet ICBMs, 167; on Soviet space program, 250, 407, 417

  civil rights, 254, 269, 270, 352, 371, 376, 433; Alabama and, 261–62, 431–32; Brown v. Board of Education, 177; Freedom Riders, 236, 269; JFK and, 176, 192–93, 236, 431–32, 445; March on Washington, 418; NASA and, 379

  Civil Rights Act of 1964, 379

  Clark, David, 182

  Clarke, Arthur C., 94, 127–28, 399

  Clarke, John, 63–64

  Clark University, 7, 10, 17, 303

  Cleveland, OH, 164; Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory, 168

  Clinton, Bill, 340

  Cobb, Geraldyn “Jerrie,” 377

  Cochran, Jackie, xii, 377

  Cold War, xii, xxv, 85, 93, 108, 113, 216; Berlin crisis and, 309, 310–11, 337; conquest of space and, 117, 164, 167, 170–71, 249, 340; Glenn’s historical flight and, 329–30; ICBMs and, 126–27; JFK and, xviii, 138, 192, 226, 398–99, 410, 411, 419; McMahon and U. S. policy, 103; missile gap and, 201; moonshot as negotiating weapon for the U.S., 393, 416–17, 425; science and math education and, 399–400; space race and, xix–xx, xxiv, 81, 93, 103, 104, 117, 127, 220, 249, 253–54, 259, 278, 279–80, 290, 420, 432; Sputnik and, 131–32, 152; threat of nuclear war and, 309–10, 311, 337, 385; U-2 spy plane shot down and, 197–98; U.S. spy satellites and, 152

  Collier, Robert J., xi

  Collier’s, 163, 181; von Braun articles in, 114–15, 142, 181–82

  Collier Trophy, xi, 432

  Collins, Michael, 184, 443, 447, 458, 461

  Collins Radio, 336

  Colorado Springs Gazette, 8

  Columbus, Christopher, 182

  Conger, Dean, 294

  Congress of Racial Equality, 236

  Connally, John, 433, 440

  Connally, Nellie, 440

  Conquest of the Moon (von Braun), 127

  Conrad, Charles, 375

  Conrad, Pete, 372

  Convair’s Astronautics, 172, 184, 191–92, 273

  Cook, Donald, 234

  Cooper, Gordon, xi, 292, 323, 354, 365, 402–5, 435; Faith 7 mission, 402–4; JFK and, 405, 432, 435–36, 440; on LBJ and the space program, 444; Mercury Seven and, 182–83, 184; prayer composed during orbit, 405

  Cooper, Trudy, 189

  Courrèges, André, 328

  Cramer, William, 303

  Crockett, Davy, 182

  Cronkite, Walter, 177, 289–90, 299, 322, 324, 407, 444, 448; “Godspeed, John Glenn” and, 321

  Crossfield, Scott, 162, 173, 182, 349

  “Crossing the Last Frontier” (von Braun), 181–82

  Cuba: Bay of Pigs, 232–33, 236, 247, 371; Cuban Missile Crisis, 383–86, 385, 418, 428; Soviet military in, 368, 371

  Curl, Robert, 365

  Daley, Richard, 384

  Dallas, TX, 266, 433, 439; JFK assassination in, 440–41; JFK’s Dallas Trade Mart speech, draft, 438–39; Love Field, 439, 440

  Dana, Bill, 151

  Daniel Guggenheim Fund for the Promotion of Aeronautics, 18

  Dean Acheson (Brinkley), xv

  Debus, Kurt, 81

  Decision to Go to the Moon, The (Logsdon), 243

  de Gaulle, Charles, xx, 127

  Democratic Party, 85, 192, 254; Dixiecrats and 1956 Southern Manifesto, 176–77; Humphrey and, 111–12; JFK and failed run for Congress (1946), 87; JFK and selling of, 105; JFK elected to Congress (1946, 1948, 1950), 83–87, 89, 99, 103–4; JFK elected president (1960), 135, 190, 191–204, 205; JFK elected to the Senate (1952), 108–10; JFK’s evolution in, 138; JFK’s policy positions and, 104; JFK try for Stevenson’s VP, 117–18; midterms (1962), 367, 376, 387–88; presidential race (1952), 110, 192; presidential race (1956), 117–18, 192; Southern Senators, 400; Sputnik and, 132–34; Truman and, 84–85

  Deterrence and Survival in the Nuclear Age (Gaither Report), 166, 178, 212

  Dickson, Paul, 44

  Die Frau im Mond (film), 16–17

  Discovery space shuttle, 441–42

  Disney, Walt, 142, 407

  Disneyland, 181, 186

  Doolittle, Jimmy, xii, 26–27, 162, 164–65, 169, 182, 238

  Dornberger, Walter, 33–34, 35, 36, 38, 44, 48, 49, 62, 63, 72, 150, 315, 338

  Douglas Aircraft Company (McDonnell Douglas), 95, 172, 200, 296, 336, 369; Preliminary Design of an Experimental World-Circling Spaceship, 95–96

  Driven Patriot (Brinkley), xv

  Dryden, Hugh, xii, 161, 169–70, 198–99, 213, 229, 234, 236, 261, 388, 389, 416, 419; Apollo and, 243, 267–68, 451

  DuBridge, Lee, 187

  Dulles, Allen, 117, 201

  Dulles, John Foster, 141

  Eaker, Ira, 81, 82

  Earhart, Amelia, xi, xxii, 223

  Earth Gazers, The (Potter), 71

  East Derry, NH, 238

  Echo 1 satellite, 202

  Edison, Thomas, 8, 16

  Edwards Air Force Base, CA, 98, 151, 162, 163, 277, 374; High-Speed Flight Research Station, 154, 162, 168; U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School, 292

  Ehrlichman, John, 458

  Einstein, Albert, 422

  Eisenhower, Dwight, xix, xx, xxi, 52, 54, 55, 58, 111, 127, 138, 191, 232, 251, 285, 298; ARPA created, 157; Christmas message from space, 172; death of, 453; economic and military policy, 113, 115, 163, 211; Explorer 1 satellite and, 157; “freedom of space” a
nd, 121, 187; Grosse report and, 116–17; “high-thrust space vehicles” and, 195; JFK and space program criticized by, 367–68, 369, 452–53; JFK as “Little Boy Blue,” 260; JFK’s criticism of, 118, 128, 132, 135, 139–40, 153, 158, 165–66, 178, 187–88, 210, 227, 235; Jupiter-C rocket criticized by, 141; leadership style, 139, 187–88, 195; Mercury Seven and, 182; midterms (1962) and, 367; military-industrial complex warning, 315; MISS program and, 163; moonshot funding criticism and, 260, 367–68, 369, 397–98, 399, 414; NASA creation and, 154, 163–64, 165, 167, 169–70; “New Look” defense strategy, 113; nuclear testing by, 339–40; presidential election (1952), 110–11; satellite development and, 122, 128, 139, 141–42, 211; school desegregation and, 141, 144; science advisors, 187; space program and, 148, 128, 254, 367; space race and, 170–71, 202; Sputnik and, 132–36, 138, 140, 141–42, 148, 152, 319; U-2 spy planes and, 121, 153, 197–98; U.S. missile program and, 119, 128; von Braun and, 122, 123, 126, 169, 235

  Eisenhower’s Sputnik Moment (Mieczkowski), 93

  Elco Motor Yachts, 46

  Ellender, Allen, 148–49

  Ellington Air Force Base, TX, 374, 440

  El Paso, TX, 98, 104

  Embry-Riddle Seaplane Base, FL, 52

  Equal Pay Act of 1963, 379

  Everdell, William, 195–96, 197, 230

  “Explaining Tomorrow with the Space Agency” (Fisher), 201

  Explorations of the Space of the Universe by Jet-Propelled Instruments (Tsiolkovsky), 11–12

  Explorer satellites, 149, 156–57, 171, 186

  Exploring the Earth and the Cosmos (Asimov), 125

  Faget, Max, 323

  Fairbank, John, 104

  Fairchild Semiconductor, 172

  Faubus, Orval, 141

  Feldman, George J., 315

  Feminine Mystique, The (Friedan), 379

  Fenster, Julie, 231

  Fisher, Allan C., Jr., 201

  Fitzgerald, John (grandfather), 4, 83

  Flash Gordon (comic strip), 22–23, 258

  Flight (Craft), 261

  Ford, Henry, 29

  Ford Motor Company, 220

  Forrestal, James, 82–83, 98

  For Spacious Skies (Carpenter), 346

  Fort Bliss, TX, 79–81, 88, 98, 104

  Fortune magazine, 397–99

  Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 8

  Franklin, Benjamin, 201–2

  Freedom 7, 238–40, 239, 242, 283, 289, 293

  French, Francis, 373, 376

  Friedan, Betty, 379

  Friedman, Saul, 439

  Friendship 7, 306, 316, 319–25, 374; JFK and, 324–25; on thirty-city world tour, 330–31; Vostok 2 compared with, 329

  From the Earth to the Moon (Verne), 3, 8, 10–11, 184

  Fulbright, J. William, 453

  Fulton, James, 407

  Gagarin, Yuri, xvii, xix, 222, 223–29, 308; JFK and, 227, 228, 233, 236, 240, 242; Khrushchev and, 277–78; Soviet fabrications and, 225–26

  Gaither, H. Rowan, 166

  Galbraith, John Kenneth, 385

  Garfield, James, 285

  Gemini (Grissom), 451–52

  Gemini program (Project Gemini), xix, 297, 317, 318, 427–28; astronauts, 372, 373–75, 399; capsules, 317–18, 368, 413; cost, 375, 388; creation of, 313–14; critics, 405–6; fast-tracking, 375, 405; funding, 396; Gemini VIII, 443; “Kennedy moon corps,” 375; launch schedule, 373; LBJ and, 449–51, 450; mandate, 375, 446; publicity, 399; successes, 450; Titan II rocket and, 318, 413; women ineligible, 376

  General Dynamics, 321, 445

  General Electric, 79, 172, 273, 437

  George, Walter, 400

  German Studies Review, 456

  German V rockets, 39; V-1 “buzz bomb,” 53–54, 55, 58, 61; V-2 rockets, 21, 35, 43–45, 48, 49, 52–54, 58, 60, 61–67, 65, 75–76; V-3 long-range gun, 53, 58

  Germany, 11, 19, 25–28, 31–33, 36, 37; defeat of, 71–72, 72, 74; Projekt Amerika, 55; RAF and U.S. bombing of, 50, 53, 55; rocket program, at Peenemünde, 34–35, 39, 43, 44, 45, 48–49, 49, 53, 60, 61, 62, 64, 71; rocket program, slave labor and, 48, 50, 61, 64–65, 71, 80, 98; rocketry pioneers and research, 10–14, 33, 37–38; secret facility (Mimoyecques), 53, 55, 56, 57, 58; secret facility (Mittelwerk), 49–50, 54, 62, 64, 71, 73, 81; Society for Space Navigation, 16; Soviet capture of facilities and personnel, 73–74, 79; Treaty of Versailles and, 14–15, 28, 31–32; U.S. capture of scientists, von Braun, and rocket assets, 71, 73–74; von Braun and, 12–14, 26, 33–36, 54, 58, 60, 62, 64; war casualties, 64; war crimes trials, 81, 98

  Gilpatric, Rowell, 342, 343, 352

  Gilruth, Robert, 170, 261, 267, 317, 318, 319, 365, 375, 440, 451

  Ginsberg, Allen, 185

  Glenn, Annie, 189, 321, 324, 343, 440

  Glenn, John, xi, 108, 150, 173–75, 204, 275, 315–32, 335, 344, 392, 435, 441–43; awards, 319, 327, 329; Cold War and, 329–30; Friendship 7 mission (first American to orbit the earth), 306, 316, 319, 320–32, 374, 451; JFK and, 248, 319–20, 324–28, 327, 365; JFK’s assassination and, 440–41; Kennedy family and, 326, 329, 440–41; Mercury program and, 173–75, 182–84, 227–28, 292; as New Frontier icon, 326, 329, 331, 337; political ambitions, 326, 441; public relations and, 331; rejects women as astronauts, 378; RFK and, 441; at Seattle NASA conference, 331–32; speech to Congress, 326; ticker-tape parade, 326, 328, 333; Titov visit and, 343; Vought F-8U Crusader flight, 174

  Glennan, T. Keith, 170, 178, 182, 187, 194–95, 213, 214, 227, 260, 276

  Glushko, Valentin, 219

  Goddard, Robert, 2, 6–10, 11, 17–19, 23, 27, 75–78, 96, 185, 303; patents by, 8, 185; predictions by, 146–47; proposes rocket to the moon, 8–9, 10; rocket experiments, 2, 14–15, 16, 18, 26; V-2 rockets and, 68

  Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, 154, 185, 300–301

  Goldwater, Barry, 350–52, 367, 419, 449, 453

  Gomel, Bob, 362

  GRAB electronic intelligence satellite, 243

  Gravity’s Rainbow (Pynchon), 78–79

  Great Depression, 21, 24, 26

  Grissom, Betty, 189

  Grissom, Virgil “Gus,” xi, 291–92, 305, 344, 354, 368; Apollo 1 disaster and death of, 451–52; on Gemini capsules, 317–18; JFK and, 294, 365, 405, 432; Liberty Bell 7 mission, 282, 291–95, 307, 312, 451; memoir, 451–52; Mercury Seven and, 182–83, 184

  Gromyko, Andrei, 422, 424, 442

  Grosse, Aristid V., 116–17

  Grumman, 284, 369, 413

  Guggenheim, Daniel, 18

  Hagerty, Hames, 141

  Haldeman, H. R., 458

  Halleck, Charles, 414

  Hampton, VA, xxi, 98, 149, 164, 210; Langley Research Center, 6, 164–65, 168, 274; Mercury program and, 170, 198, 227; Space Task Group, iv, 172, 261, 268, 303

  Haney, Paul, 248

  Hansen, James, 169, 375

  Harding, Warren, 192

  Hardwick, Elizabeth, 194

  Harlow, Bryce, 159–60, 458

  Hart, Janey Briggs, 378

  Hart, Phil, 378

  Harvard University, 23, 24–25, 29, 31, 86, 474n24

  Hayward, John, 234

  Heavens and the Earth, The (McDougall), 21

  Heimburg, Karl, 353

  Hellman, John, 55

  Hershey, John, 51, 55, 56

  Hess, Rudolf, 35

  Hibbs, Al, 314

  Higgins Industries, 46

  Himmler, Heinrich, 48, 50, 62

  Hitler, Adolf, 26, 28, 72; Nerobefehl, 71; V-2 rockets and, 39, 43–45; von Braun, Dornberger, and, 35–36, 38, 39, 43, 64

  Holloway, James L., 380

  Holmes, Bonnie, 445

  Holmes, Brainerd, 313, 386–87, 388, 414

  Honeywell, 437

  Hopkins, Harry, 24

  Hotz, Robert, xii

  Houbolt, John C., 274–75, 276, 296

  Houston, TX: Clear Lake City, 304, 437; crowds greeting JFK, 359, 436, 438; economic benefits from space program, 360, 427, 437–38; JFK’s Catholicism speech in, 203, 360, 436; JFK
visiting, Nov. 21, 1963, 436–37; JFK visiting, Sept. 11–12, 1962, 359–66, 366, 394; LBJ and, 284, 301–4; NASA’s Manned Spacecraft Center in, xxiii, 170, 284, 300–304, 313, 360, 362, 365–66, 366, 394, 436, 437, 438, 452, 459; Rice Hotel, 360, 374, 436; Shepard in, 442; as Space City, U.S.A., 303; Space Task Group in, 303

  Houston, W. V., 155

  Houston Chronicle, 240, 303, 439

  Houston Post, 303

  Houston Press, xxiii, 360, 361

  Hubble, Edwin, 5

  Hughes, Sarah, 440

  Hughes Aircraft Co., 200

  Hull, Cordell, 76

  Human Condition, The (Arendt), 129

  Humble Oil, 301, 302, 304

  Humphrey, Hubert, 111–12, 192, 194, 259

  Huntsville, AL, xi, 104, 143, 264, 431; ABMA at, 105, 149, 155, 168–69; Ballistic Missile Agency base, 353; Mercury program and, 227; NASA and, xxi, 168, 198, 210; OGMC at, 104, 114; Ordnance Rocket Center at, 107; race discrimination at, 379, 431–32; Redstone Arsenal, 107, 108; as Rocket City, U.S.A., 352; Saturn rocket and, 229, 267, 273, 313, 352, 353, 413; von Braun and German rocket team in, 104–5, 107, 116, 141, 142, 149, 155–56, 169, 185, 187, 261, 267, 295, 353, 456. See also Marshall Space Flight Center

  Hyannis Port, MA, 25, 41, 59, 307, 309

  IBM, 185, 296, 437

  intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), xvii, xix, 88, 93, 179, 337; antimissile defense, 251, 340–41; Atlas and Titan, 118, 119; Cold War and, 126–27; Eisenhower and, 114, 128; first long-distance flight, 172; Gaither Report and, 166; JFK and, 118–19, 191, 201; JFK at simulated Russian strike, 417; missile-detection satellites, 211; nuclear-tipped, 94, 118; Polaris and Minuteman, 201, 211, 412; Soviet Semyorka, 129; Soviet Union and, 94, 101, 118–20, 137, 149, 158, 171, 210, 278; U.S. capability, 75–76, 78, 81–82, 94, 119–20, 166–67, 201, 210, 211, 314; U.S. costs, 128; U.S. solid-fueled programs, 119; von Braun and, 53–54, 58, 78, 88, 94. See also missile gap

  intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM), 141, 166, 171, 384

  International Geophysical Year (IGY), 121–22, 145, 155, 165

  In the Shadow of the Moon (French and Burgess), 373

  Into the Silent Sea (French and Burgess), 376

  Isaacson, Walter, 395

  Jackson, Henry “Scoop,” 132, 138, 192

  James, William, 194

  Japan, 42, 77–78, 94

  Jefferson, Thomas, 87, 231, 241, 254, 284, 398, 456

  Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), 114, 122, 155, 164, 168, 200, 268, 314, 337, 340, 349, 395

  JFK and the Masculine Mystique (Watts), 242

  Jodrell Bank Observatory, UK, 416