James A. McDivitt oral history (Doug Ward)

Johnson Space Center Oral History Project James A. McDivitt
29 June 1999 12-86
program.
Because when Congress asked Webb how much it was going to cost to do the Apollo
Program, the numbers I’m not sure about but I think the engineering estimate was $20
billion. Now NASA management might have today come in with $10 billion. What Webb
did was he went in with $40 billion. He doubled it instead of cutting it in half. He went
there, he told them it was going to be $40 billion, they approved it, and the entire time I ran
the Apollo Spacecraft Program I never had a problem with money. We were always on time.
We were always willing to run things. And we were able to run the program in a way that
got things done.
WARD: And in reality, that’s probably a cheaper way to run a program.
MCDIVITT: Oh, much cheaper! Much cheaper. I think it cost $23 billion to do the program
that he said would cost $40 billion. And when we needed money, we had it. I remember one
day Rocco called me up. Rocco Petrone was the [NASA Headquarters Apollo] Program
Director. And this sort of has to do with the whole management concept and the flexibility
we had in those days versus what it is today.
Rocco called me up one day and said, “Jim, have you got any extra money?” I said,
“Well, yeah, probably I do. What do you need?” He said, “Well, Dick Smith’s having a
problem with the Saturn. He’s got an engine problem and he needs some money.” I said,
“Well, how much do you need?” He said, “Well, what have you got?” So, I said—I put him
on hold. I didn’t even hang up!
I put him on hold, and I called my Program Control guy, and I said, “Do we have any
extra money?” He said, “Well, you know, I know we have $50 million, but I don’t—” You
know, we might’ve had—remember, these are ’69, ’70 dollars. He said, “I know we’ve got