astronautix.com | NASA's Ten-Year Plan presented to Congress |
In testimony before the House Committee on Science and Astronautics, Richard E. Horner, Associate Administrator of NASA, presented NASA's ten-year plan for 1960-1970. The essential elements had been recommended by the Research Steering Committee on Manned Space Flight. NASA's Office of Program Planning and Evaluation, headed by Homer J. Stewart, formalized the ten-year plan.
On February 19, NASA officials again presented the ten-year timetable to the House Committee. A lunar soft landing with a mobile vehicle had been added for 1965. On March 28, NASA Administrator T. Keith Glennan described the plan to the Senate Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences. He estimated the cost of the program to be more than $1 billion in Fiscal Year 1962 and at least $1.5 billion annually over the next five years, for a total cost of $12 to $15 billion.
First launching of a passive reflector communications satellite
First launching of the Scout vehicle
First launching of the Thor-Delta vehicle
First launching of the Atlas-Agena B (DOD)
First suborbital flight by an astronaut
First launching of an Atlas-Centaur vehicle
Attainment of orbital manned space flight, Project Mercury
First launching of an orbiting astronomical and radio astronomical laboratory
First reconnaissance of Mars or Venus, or both, by an unmanned vehicle