Powering Apollo: James E. Webb of NASA

Our nation was indeed fortunate to have a NASA Administrator of the skills and insights of James Webb. His apparent push for the Industry-University-Government axis has served the United States well to this very day! I equate his vision of the Industry-University-Government axis as the forerunner of what sociologists today refer as "The Tripple Helix." Let us hope that future NASA administrators might wield the influence in the Oval Office and the Halls of Congress for humans to Return to the Moon in the 21st Century. If the James Webb Telescope has the vision of its name sake, well ... fasten your seat belts!

This is an excellent biography of James E. Webb (1906-1992), NASA administrator between 1961 and 1968, the critical period in which Project Apollo was underway. During his tenure NASA developed the modern techniques necessary to coordinate and direct the most unique and complex technological enterprise in human history, the sending of human beings to the Moon and bringing them safely back to the Earth.Political scientist W. Henry Lambright focuses here on the biography of a stellar public administrator. He finds that Webb, a North Carolinian with a thick southern accent that charmed all and helped to hide a steel trap mind, was well-prepared for guiding NASA during this critical era because of his place as a Federal government insider well-versed in the bobs and weaves, ins and outs of New Deal Washington and the highest echelons of the Democratic Party. Coming to Washington in 1932, Webb served as secretary to Representative Edward W. Pou of the 4th North Carolina District and Chairman of the powerful House Rules Committee until 1934. He then went to work in the law office of O. Max Gardner, attorney and former Governor of South Carolina, in Washington, D.C., between 1934 and 1936. He then moved to the private sector, eventually rising to vice president of the Sperry Gyroscope Company, before entering the U.S. Marine Corps in 1944. After World War II, Webb returned to Washington and served as Executive Assistant to Max Gardner, by then Under Secretary of the Treasury, before being named as Director of the Bureau of the Budget in the Executive Office of the President, a position he held until 1949. President Harry S Truman then asked Webb to serve as Under Secretary of State. When the Truman administration ended early in 1953, Webb left Washington for a position in the Kerr-McGee Oil Corp. in Oklahoma.James Webb returned to Washington on February 14, 1961, when he accepted the position of administrator of NASA. Webb's long experience in Washington paid handsomely during his years at NASA, where he lobbied for federal support for the space program and dealt with competing interests on Capitol Hill and in the White House. His career changed fundamentally after May 25, 1961, when President John F. Kennedy announced that the United States would commit itself to landing an American on the Moon before the end of the decade. For seven years after Kennedy's 1961 lunar landing announcement, through October 1968, James Webb politicked, coaxed, cajoled, and maneuvered for NASA in Washington. The longtime Washington insider proved a master at bureaucratic politics. In the end, through a variety of methods Administrator Webb built a seamless web of political liaisons that brought continued support for and resources to accomplish the Apollo Moon landing on the schedule Kennedy had announced. He left NASA in October 1968, just as Apollo was nearing a successful completion. All of this is detailed in Lambright's excellent book. Once reading it, everyone will und

So Many books have been written about what it took technologically to put a man on the moon. What this book does is give the reader insight into what it took to get the resources to buy the technology. James Webb proved to be an expert when it came to serving many masters. The President(s), Key members of Congress and the NASA team. Would we have landed a man on the Moon before the end of the 1960's without Jim Webb? Probably Not.

A nice book about the second NASA administrator who able to guide NASA from the early days of the Mercury program to right up to the first journey to the moon (Apollo 8) when Webb was forced to leave as the Nixon Administration took over.The book is divided into two parts. The first third of the book describes Webb's early years including his employment with the State Department, the Bureau of the Budget and Republic Supply, a division of Kerr-McGee. The remainder of the book focuses on Webb's involvement in the development of the NASA management system and the problems he overcame to get Apollo to the Moon.In general, I found the book quite interesting. There are many descriptions of the personal battles he had to fight with contractors, the congress and his own top-level employees, how set up the NASA management system, his involvement with the academic world and in how upper management viewed various disasters and triumphs. The management system which he developed for the largest engineering and research effort mankind has ever undertaken, carried on well after he left NASA. For example, the Apollo 11 moon landing took place when it was suppose to even the there was a new Nixon appointed leader. This management system carried on well into the Space Shuttle and Space Station programs. I also found it refreshing that Jim Webb felt a sense of personal responsibility for the loss of the Apollo 1 crew. Compare that to the finger pointing associated with the Challenger explosion and the majority of today's politicians. After finishing the book, I came away with the feeling that Jim Webb was truly believed in the dream that mankind should explore space and made every effort to make this dream a reality.