Manned Mars Landing

Following the first Apollo lunar landing mission in 1969, then Vice-President Spiro Agnew called upon NASA to prepare a plan in 30 days. The action was assigned to the newly formed Program Development Organization. A team was formed to prepare a plan which was completed on time and on August 4, 1969, the plan was presented to The Space Task Group (STG) at NASA HQ by Dr. Wernher Von Braun accompanied by Dr. William Lucas, Ron Harris and Gene Austin. The STG was headed by Dr. George Moeller, then AA in the Office of Manned Space Flight, and composed of other senior NASA officials. The charts in this book are copies of those used in the August 4, 1969 briefing. After this briefing, the MSFC attendees met privately with Dr. Moeller and received further comments/actions. The plan was worked further over the next few weeks and subsequently discussions were held with the Vice President and other White House staff members. While no blanket approval was given to the plan, the need for a reusable Space Shuttle was clearly indicated ass a first step ;in achieving the capability to assemble a Mars ship in Earth orbit. Dr. Moeller hence used this as a strong justification in his successful efforts to sell the Space Shuttle Program.