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This is a NASA Johnson Space Center Oral History Project transcript of astronaut James A. McDivitt, interviewed by Doug Ward at Elk Lake, Michigan, on 29 June 1999. McDivitt talks about flying F-86s in Korea, test pilot work at Edwards, and his first class at the Aerospace Research Pilot School. He also covers turning down Dyna-soar, joining NASA in 1962 and learning to be an Apollo Program Manager. He describes the Change Board and says decisions were not second-guessed.
Johnson Space Center Oral History Project James A. McDivitt 29 June 1999 12-84 MCDIVITT: You know, I think so. Yeah, I think so. I had a lot of difficulties keeping the Apollo money in Apollo. I really got crosswise with the Manned Spacecraft Center management on a number of occasions over spending Apollo money. In those days, before I took over the program, every dollar I think that was spent at the Manned Spacecraft Center was Apollo money. And when I took over the program, we were already—that budget had already been set for the year. And so, I didn’t have to deal with setting the budget. My first budget exercise, I found that three-quarters of the Engineering and Development Directorate’s money was Apollo money, and it wasn’t being used on Apollo. That the Flight Operations money was being diverted to shuttle and Skylab. The same thing with the Flight Crew money was being diverted out of Apollo. I think we even mowed the lawn with Apollo money. And I got in a lot of very heated arguments with everybody else on the Center who wanted the Apollo money; and it seemed to me that it was very shortsighted planning where you didn’t have—because Apollo was going to end. And when it ended were we going to shut the Center down? And I didn’t think we would, and I didn’t think that we should. And it seemed to me that we ought to have an institutional budget for the institution of the Manned Spacecraft Center, which took care of the facilities, mowing the lawn, paying the electric bill, you know, the salaries for the administrative people, and the infrastructure of the Center. And then if we were going to have a Skylab Program, we ought to have a Skylab budget. If we’re going to have a Shuttle Program, we ought to have a shuttle budget. And quite frankly, I think that the people pushing shuttle were not telling the truth about what shuttle was really going to cost. They didn’t have approval for it. They were being overly optimistic on how often it could fly; overly optimistic on what it would cost. I think they deceived themselves, significantly; deceived Congress. And they totally screwed
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