Alan Shepard on NASA leadership
From Alan Shepard - Last interview (1998) · · Roberto Mastri
“Jim Webb was a fresh breath when he came along. He knew all the ins and outs of Washington, knew which chords to play. He wasn't a lobbyist but he had a great package, men in space, and he played it well. He did us a great favor, certainly responding so quickly and rapidly to Kennedy's surprising decision to go to the moon.”
On , Alan Shepard, Chief Financial Officer at CNX RESOURCES CORPORATION, spoke about NASA leadership during Alan Shepard - Last interview (1998) on Roberto Mastri.
About Alan Shepard
In a 1998 oral history interview conducted by Roy Neal for NASA's Johnson Space Center, Alan Shepard reflected on his career as an astronaut and the broader space program. Shepard described the Apollo 1 fire as a "real shock" that "really woke everybody up" and led to a "total redesign of many of the parts of the spacecraft." He noted that President John F. Kennedy's decision to go to the moon came just three weeks after Shepard's own 15-minute suborbital flight, and he credited NASA administrator James Webb with playing that decision effectively. Shepard also commented on the competitive nature of the early space program, saying the astronauts were "in a race for space with the Russians" and that the U.S. eventually "caught up and went past them." Shepard praised the NASA organization for its long-term success, stating that "the thing that impressed me the most about the whole NASA process is that it has worked so well over the years." He credited the agency's investment in computing during the 1960s as the forerunner of modern chip technology, saying "we wouldn't have advanced to the position we are today without that tremendous impetus." Shepard also discussed the Life magazine contract, calling it "ambivalent" and noting that opinion among the astronauts was divided. The interview was conducted in February 1998; Shepard died of leukemia in July of that year.