Tone & Pace

The Pentagon corridors were deserted as, at 7:30 a.m., Defense Secretary Robert McNamara entered the beige-carpeted private dining room of Air Force Secretary Eugene Zuckert. Over breakfast, McNamara and Zuckert discussed the U.S.

military space program, which had come under heavy fire since the companionable flights of Cosmonauts Popovich and Nikolayev. McNamara asked Zuckert if he felt that the Department of Defense was delaying essential Air Force space projects.

Replied Zuckert, a loyal friend (and squash-court foe) to McNamara since the 19405, when they both taught at the Harvard School of Business: "It's not anything you're holding up. Bob. But the tone and the pace of our program are not right."

Stronger criticism of the lagging U.S. military space program came from Nevada's Senator Howard W. Cannon, a brigadier general in the Air Force Reserve. In a speech roundly seconded by Arizona's Barry Goldwater, himself a major general in the Air Force Reserve, Cannon warned that U.S. security depends upon the military control of space, since "the U.S.S.R. space program is being directed toward attaining military dominance in the near-earth space envelope." McNamara phoned Cannon for an appointment, slipped up to Capitol Hill for an hour and a half of serious discussion about the problem. Next day the question came up at President Kennedy's press conference. Kennedy was candid about the U.S.'s trailing Russia in the overall space race. "We started late--we're trying to overtake them. And I think by the end of the decade we will. But we're in for some further periods when we'll be behind. And anybody who attempts to suggest we're not behind misleads the American people." But Kennedy saw no need for a crash military program. He pointed out that the Pentagon this year will spend $1.5 billion on space--three times the 1960 figure. Furthermore, Kennedy argued: "There is a great interrelationship between the military and peaceful use of space. But we're concentrating on the peaceful use of space, which will also help us protect our security if that becomes essential."

The Big Horses. In fact, many professional military men--particularly in the Air Force--insist that specialized military requirements demand specialized space technology. The civilian officials and scientists of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration are shooting for the moon, and they tend to shrug off the military aspects of space. In contrast to the moonshooters, the Air Force foresees the need for a manned spacecraft, rugged and simple in design, that will be ready to go any time in any weather, reach orbit, maneuver in space, and return to earth as a matter of combat routine.

The Air Force has consistently had its proposals turned down by the Department of Defense, which insists that a project must have a "demonstrated military requirement" before it can be approved. Says one top Air Force official: "Frankly, we're not at the stage where you can have a detailed plan. We're more intuitive about this. You've got to have some horses and bet on them real big. It's the only way to win. The Russians aren't going to sit around waiting for the next fiscal year." Says another: "We want a hard-hitting, driving program, and Defense wants an orderly, tentative one. It's a matter of tempo."

Any Way Is O.K. It was in the light of these complaints and criticisms that McNamara last week undertook a full-scale review of the military space program. By a happy coincidence, he was able to an nounce final approval of plans to build the Titan III, due for use in 1964 or 1965, which will be nearly three times as powerful as the rockets that lifted the Russian Vostoks into orbit. The status of other key Air Force space projects reviewed by McNamara:

> To make a start in military spacecraft, the Air Force hopes for a 1964 launch of the Dyna-Soar, the manned space glider, which will be the forerunner of more sophisticated vehicles that will be able to maneuver while in orbit.

>-To track all satellites by radar, the Air Force is already operating the Space Detection and Tracking System (SPADATS), which watched the Vostoks.

The Air Force is now striving to increase radar ranges, improve detection and tracking techniques.

>-To give an immediate warning of enemy missile firings, the Air Force is banking on Midas satellites, which will detect the launch by sensing the infra-red glow given off by the booster exhausts. To date, however, the Air Force has still not been able to develop reliable infra-red sensors.

Eventually, Midas satellites will be scattered through space in random patterns to keep an eye on the entire world.

>-To examine suspicious foreign satellites, the Air Force is cranking up the Satellite Inspector program (dubbed "Saint"). When perfected, Saint's satellites will be able to rendezvous within 50 ft. or so of a strange satellite, size it up by TV and infra-red and radiation detectors. Says one official: "It's a very orderly program, but there's some question whether that's the proper throttle setting."

>-To destroy enemy satellites, the Air Force wants its own manned satellites. To learn more about man in space, the Air Force wants to be tied into NASA's Project Gemini, the two-man satellite scheduled to fly in 1963. In addition, the Air Force has under preliminary development an aerospace "plane," which would use an air-breathing engine in the atmosphere, switch to rockets in space.

As the review of the military space program went on last week, both Defense and Air Force officials agreed that more money might be pumped into certain key projects such as Saint and Midas, and that, in all likelihood, there will be a substantial boost in the space budget presented to Congress in January. Says a top Air Force official: "The pressure of events will make things change. Some people will claim it would have come anyway, without the cosmonauts. But that's O.K., as long as we get the programs."

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