Organizing the Space Age

1
Organizing the Space Age

• Bureaucratic and Systems Management Development
  from 1958-1968

2
Thesis

• The Success of Apollo was critically dependent
  upon the integration of three competing
  interests.
• Technical
• Organizational
• Political

3
Evolution

• NASA began as a loosely connected group of
  independent research and development centers.
• NACA
• JPL
• Redstone/Huntsville

4
Political / Technical rational

• In the white heat of the early post Sputnik era,
  technical achievement was the primary guage of a
  space program success, and political leaders left
  control in the hands of the engineers who
  promised technical success.
• Stephen Johnson, The Secret of Apollo 2003

5
James Webb / Political
Chief Administrator Focused on keeping the
organization, as a whole, politically
responsive. Space Age America
6
Robert Seamans / Systems Management
Seamans coordinated the efforts of the field
centers through the application of systems
management
7
Hugh L. Drydan / Technical
Drydan, an aerospace scientist, focused on
ensuring the technical competence of the
organization.
8
Short Honeymoon
Despite extraordinary initial latitude given to
NASA by Congress to help fulfill geopolitical
goals, massivie cost overruns and schedule
slippages forced intervention. Gemini Estimate
531,000,000 1962 Cost 1,354,000,000 -
1964
9
Program Management
OMSF gains enhanced power as top priority
program. George E. Mueller imports significant
personnel from the Air Force.
10
Organizational Cultures
Competency culture Engineering based
technocratic RD inherited culture. Informal
oversight, excellence over cost Single point
oversight Control culture- Technocratic
committee leaders become Bureaucrats Documentation
as a method. Design Freezes, SOPs, Work
Packages Interactive oversight.
11
Organizational Cultures
Team based culture History Success record Immune
to change Informal oversight Note passing
12
Technical Competence
Bottom-up technology drivin decision
process Lunar Orbit Rendezvous All-up
Testing Contractor technologists are unlikely to
challenge the hand that feeds even when it
unbounds competence.
13
Apollo 1
14
Apollo 1
15
Technological Development
Increased system complexity requires methods of
mitigating against interactive failures. Technocr
ats Redundancy, High Quality Bureaucrats
Design Freezes, Configuration management Contract
or Oversight Technocrats Disassembling,
incremental testing. Bureaucrats Direct
Contractor Penetration, Insentive contracting
16
Political Accountability
Use of 90 Contractors, for politics vs.
technical merit. National Foreign Policy
Objectives Space Age America
17
End of an Era
Competition between the political, organizational
and technical priorities of NASA both enabled and
constrained the development of the Apollo
program.