Space Task Group

Short description: Group of NASA engineers working on the human spaceflight program starting in 1958

The Headquarters of the Space Task Group (STG) at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia Sign on the Space Task Group building in June 1961

The Space Task Group was a working group of NASA engineers created in 1958, tasked with managing America's human spaceflight programs. Headed by Robert Gilruth and based at the Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, it managed Project Mercury and follow-on plans. After President John F. Kennedy set the goal in 1961 for the Apollo Program to land a man on the Moon and bring him back safely to Earth, NASA decided a much larger organization and a new facility was required to perform the Task Group's function, and it was transformed into the Manned Spacecraft Center (now the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center), located in Houston, Texas.

In later years, the term Space Task Group was ambiguously reused to refer to an ad hoc committee appointed by the President to recommend human spaceflight programs, usually chaired by the Vice President. For instance, President Richard Nixon appointed such a group in February 1969 to outline a post-Apollo spaceflight strategy, chaired by Vice President Spiro T. Agnew.[1]

## Contents

* 1 History
* 2 Reuse of the name
* 3 References
* 3.1 Citations
* 3.2 Bibliography
* 4 External links

## History

Created on November 5, 1958, the Space Task Group was headed by Robert Gilruth. Originally it consisted of 45 people, including eight secretaries and "computers", the occupational title for women who ran calculations on mechanical adding machines. Of its 37 engineers, 27 were from Langley Research Center, and 10 had been assigned from Lewis Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio. Original members of the group included Charles Donlan, Gilruth's deputy; Max Faget, head of engineering; Chuck Mathews, head of flight operations; Chris Kraft, also in flight operations; and Glynn Lunney, who at 21 was the youngest member of the group. The head of the public affairs office was John "Shorty" Powers.

In 1959, the group was expanded by the addition of 32 engineers from Canada, who had been left without jobs when the Avro Arrow project was cancelled.[2] These new engineers included Jim Chamberlin, George Harris, John Hodge, Owen Maynard, Bryan Erb, Rodney Rose, and Tecwyn Roberts.[3]

After President John F. Kennedy set the national goal on May 25, 1961, of landing a man on the Moon by the end of the 1960s and bringing him back to Earth, it became clear to NASA administrator James E. Webb that Gilruth would need a much larger organization and facilities, in fact a new dedicated NASA center, to administer US human spaceflight programs. Webb got the approval of Kennedy, and the Congress, and in August 1961 appointed a team to select a site for the new center. On September 19, Webb announced the new Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC) would be built on a Houston, Texas site donated by Rice University. Gilruth immediately began the transition of his Task Group into the new MSC, planning his increased staff organization and its move to Houston, using temporary leased office and test facility space on 12 sites while the new facility was being built. By September 1962, his organization was moved to Houston and construction had begun, effectively marking the end of the Task Group. The MSC facility was completed in September 1963.

## Reuse of the name

The National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958, which established NASA, also directed the President of the United States to chair a National Aeronautics and Space Council (later the National Space Council), including the Secretaries of State and Defense, the NASA Administrator, the Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, and any additional members that the president chose to appoint. This council was tasked with making recommendations on the direction of the US civilian and military space programs. Occasionally this council was referred to as a "Space Task Group". President John F. Kennedy persuaded Congress to modify the law to give him the authority to appoint the Vice President to chair the council in his place. As the Apollo program reached its climax in 1969, President Richard M. Nixon directed Vice President Spiro T. Agnew's "Space Task Group" to recommend a future direction of the US human spaceflight program. Agnew enthusiastically supported an ambitious Space Transportation System program including reusable spacecraft, permanent Earth and Lunar stations, and human flight to Mars. However, Nixon knew the mood in the US Congress would not continue to sustain funding at the level of Apollo, and cut these plans back to only the development of the Space Shuttle, with possible eventual establishment of an Earth orbital space station.

## References

### Citations

1. ↑ Compton, W. David; Benson, Charles D. (1983), "Chapter 5: Years of Uncertainty, 1967-1969", Living and Working in Space: A History of Skylab, SP-4208, Washington, D.C.: NASA, p. 101, https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4208/ch5.htm
2. ↑ Murray & Cox (1989), pp. 33-35.
3. ↑ Gainor (2001), pp. 270-276.

### Bibliography

* Gainor, Chris (2001). Arrows to the Moon - Avro's Engineers and the Space Race. Burlington ON Canada: Apogee Books. ISBN 1-896522-83-1. https://archive.org/details/arrowstomoonavro0000gain.
* Murray, Charles; Catherine Bly Cox (1989). Apollo: The Race to the Moon. New York: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0-671-61101-1.
* Swenson, Jr., Loyd S.; James M. Grimwood; Charles C. Alexander (1989). This New Ocean: A History of Project Mercury. NASA. https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4201/toc.htm.

## External links

* Space Task Group Organizational Charts

* v
* t
* e

NASA

Policy and history|

| History|

* NACA (1915)
* National Aeronautics and Space Act (1958)
* Space Task Group (1958)
* Paine (1986)
* Rogers (1986)
* Ride (1987)
* Space Exploration Initiative (1989)
* Augustine (1990)
* U.S. National Space Policy (1996)
* CFUSAI (2002)
* CAIB (2003)
* Vision for Space Exploration (2004)
* Aldridge (2004)
* Augustine (2009)

|

General|

* Space Race
* Administrator and Deputy Administrator
* Chief Scientist
* Astronaut Corps
* Ranks and positions
* Chief
* Budget
* Spin-off technologies
* NASA TV
* NASA Social
* Launch Services Program
* Mercury Control Center
* Kennedy Space Center
* Vehicle Assembly Building
* Launch Complex 39
* Launch Control Center
* Operations and Checkout Building
* Johnson Space Center
* Mission Control
* Lunar Sample Laboratory

Robotic programs|

| Past|

* Hitchhiker
* Mariner
* Mariner Mark II
* MESUR
* Mars Surveyor '98
* New Millennium
* Lunar Orbiter
* Pioneer
* Planetary Observer
* Ranger
* Surveyor
* Viking
* Project Prometheus
* Mars Scout
* Mars Exploration Rover

|

Current|

* Living With a Star
* Lunar Precursor Robotic Program
* Earth Observing System
* Great Observatories program
* Explorer
* Small explorer
* Voyager
* Discovery
* New Frontiers
* Solar Terrestrial Probes
* Commercial Lunar Payload Services

Human spaceflight
programs|

| Past|

* X-15 (suborbital)
* Mercury
* Gemini
* Apollo
* Apollo–Soyuz Test Project (with the Soviet space program)
* Skylab
* Space Shuttle
* Shuttle–Mir (with Roscosmos State Corporation)
* Constellation

|

Current|

* International Space Station
* Commercial Orbital Transportation Services
* Commercial Crew Development
* Orion
* Artemis
* Lunar Gateway

Individual featured
missions
(human and robotic)|

| Past|

* COBE
* Mercury 3
* Mercury-Atlas 6
* Magellan
* Pioneer 10
* Pioneer 11
* Galileo
* GALEX
* GRAIL
* WMAP
* Space Shuttle
* Sojourner rover
* Spirit rover
* LADEE
* MESSENGER
* Aquarius
* Cassini
* Dawn
* Kepler space telescope
* Opportunity rover
* RHESSI
* observed

|

Currently
operating|

* Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
* 2001 Mars Odyssey
* New Horizons
* International Space Station
* Hubble Space Telescope
* Spitzer
* Swift
* THEMIS
* Mars Exploration Rover
* Curiosity rover
* timeline
* InSight
* GOES 14
* Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter
* GOES 15
* Van Allen Probes
* Solar Dynamics Observatory
* Juno
* Mars Science Laboratory
* timeline
* NuSTAR
* Voyager 1
* Voyager 2
* WISE
* MAVEN
* MMS
* OSIRIS-REx
* Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite

Future|

* Joint Polar Satellite System
* James Webb Space Telescope
* Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope
* Mars 2020
* NISAR
* Europa Clipper

Communications
and navigation|

* Near Earth Network
* Space Network
* Deep Space Network (Goldstone
* Madrid
* Canberra
* Space Flight Operations Facility)
* Deep Space Atomic Clock

NASA lists|

* Astronauts
* by name
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* List of NASA aircraft
* List of NASA missions
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* List of NASA contractors
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* List of NASA cancellations
* List of Space Shuttle missions
* crews
* List of NASA cameras on spacecraft

NASA images
and artwork|

* Earthrise
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* Mystic Mountain
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* Fallen Astronaut
* Lunar plaques
* Pioneer plaques
* Voyager Golden Record
* Apollo 11 goodwill messages
* NASA insignia
* Gemini and Apollo medallions
* Mission patches

Related|

* Apollo 15 postal covers incident
* Space Mirror Memorial
* The Astronaut Monument
* U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame
* Space program on U.S. stamps
* Apollo 17 Moon mice
* Other primates in space
* NASA spinoff technologies

* Category

* v
* t
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NASA facilities

NASA Headquarters

Primary 10 centers|

| Space flight|

* Goddard Space Flight Center
* Jet Propulsion Laboratory
* Johnson Space Center
* Mission Control
* Lunar Sample Laboratory
* Kennedy Space Center
* Vehicle Assembly Building
* Launch Complex 39
* Launch Control Center
* Central Instrumentation Facility
* Shuttle Landing Facility
* Operations and Checkout Building
* Marshall Space Flight Center
* Stennis Space Center

|

Research|

* Ames Research Center
* Armstrong Flight Research Center
* Glenn Research Center
* Langley Research Center
* Space Task Group

Other facilities|

* Carnarvon Tracking Station
* Deep Space Network
* Goldstone
* Madrid
* Canberra
* Space Flight Operations
* Goddard Institute for Space Studies
* Independent Verification and Validation Facility
* Michoud Assembly Facility
* Santa Susana Field Laboratory
* Scientific Balloon Flight Facility
* Wallops Flight Facility
* White Sands Test Facility

Related|

* Cape Canaveral Air Force Station

* v
* t
* e

Project Mercury

General|

* NASA
* Space race
* Space flight

Mercury program capsule

Missions|

| Crewed|

* Suborbit: Freedom 7
* Liberty Bell 7
* Earth orbit: Friendship 7
* Aurora 7
* Sigma 7
* Faith 7
* Cancelled: Freedom 7 II

|

Uncrewed|

* Little Joe 1
* Big Joe 1
* LJ-6
* LJ-1A
* LJ-2
* LJ-1B
* Beach Abort
* MA-1
* Little Joe 5
* MR-1
* MR-1A
* MR-2
* MA-2
* LJ-5A
* MR-BD
* MA-3
* LJ-5B
* MA-4
* MS-1
* MA-5

Astronauts|

| General|

* Mercury Seven

|

In order of flight|

* Suborbit: Alan Shepard
* Gus Grissom
* Earth orbit: John Glenn
* Scott Carpenter
* Wally Schirra
* Gordon Cooper
* Did not fly: Deke Slayton

Equipment|

* Navy Mark IV (space suit)

Test animals|

* Sam
* Ham
* Enos

Subprograms|

* Mercury-Atlas
* Mercury-Redstone
* Mercury-Scout
* Mercury-Jupiter (canceled)

Contractors|

* McDonnell Aircraft Corporation (spacecraft)
* Convair (Atlas rocket)
* Chrysler (Redstone rocket)
* North American Aviation (Little Joe rocket)

Rockets|

* Atlas
* Redstone
* Blue Scout II
* Little Joe
* Jupiter (proposed)

Launch sites
and Control Center|

* Wallops Island / Wallops Flight Facility
* Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Launch Complex 5
* Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Launch Complex 14
* Mercury Control Center

Related programs|

| US|

* Gemini (successor program)
* Apollo (lunar program)

|

Soviet|

* Vostok (rival in space race)

Other|

* Mercury 13 (non-NASA project inspired by Project Mercury)

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