Part 3: Chapter 9, Sparrow in the Falcon's Nest Summary and Analysis

NASA was a civilian agency, not a military agency. It more or less had to be sheltered from the military. No one at the DoD was in favor of the civilian space agency. Once the space agency was created, it had to be staffed, which meant they had to find an administrator. T. Keith Glennan was selected as administrator and Hugh Dryden as his deputy. Glennan's philosophy was based on five points: government was too big so NASA work would be out-sourced; the agency should build a program suitable for large launch vehicles instead of concentrating on the missiles; they were to ignore the propaganda value of space flight; the structure of programs should be based long-term goals; and the NASA program should be based on providing the capabilities...