This build-up program required 61 SATURN I and 88 SATURN II launchings through November 1966. Some 490,000 pounds of useful cargo would be transported to the moon. During 1967, the first operational year of the lunar outpost, a total of 64 launchings were scheduled, resulting in an additional 266,000 pounds of cargo on the moon. The total cost of the eight and one-half year program presented in the study was estimated to be six billion dollars.
Soon after the Horizon study was completed, NASA was formed and assigned all space exploration tasks. The Von Braun team that led Horizon were transferred to NASA. The origins of the Apollo project can be seen in Horizon.
Horizon LERV American manned lunar lander. Study 1959. Lunar landing and return vehicle planned to take up to 16 crew to the lunar surface and back in the US Army's Project Horizon of 1959. |
The Army Ballistic Missile Agency completed and forwarded to higher authority the first edition of A National Integrated Missile and Space Vehicle Development Program, which had been in preparation since April 1957. Included was a "short-cut development program" for large payload capabilities, covering the clustered-engine booster of 1.5 million pounds of thrust to be operational in 1963. The total development cost of $850 million during the years 1958-1963 covered 30 research and development flights, some carrying manned and unmanned space payloads. One of six conclusions given in the document was that "Development of the large (1520 K-pounds thrust) booster is considered the key to space exploration and warfare." Later vehicles with greater thrust were also described.
Following a Memorandum of Agreement between Maj. Gen. John B. Medaris of Army Ordnance Missile Command (AOMC) and Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) Director Roy W. Johnson on this date and a meeting on November 4, ARPA and AOMC representatives agreed to extend the Juno V project. The objective of ARPA Order 14 was changed from booster feasibility demonstration to "the development of a reliable high performance booster to serve as the first stage of a multistage carrier vehicle capable of performing advanced missions."
An Army task force was formed to develop a plan for establishing a manned lunar outpost by the quickest practical means. The effort was called Project Horizon. The first phase of the project was to make a limited feasibility study, with estimated time and costs. The task force worked under the direction of Maj. Gen. John B. Medaris of the Army Ordnance Missile Command and in full collaboration with the von Braun team. The report was completed on June 8.
In a Project Horizon report, Wernher von Braun, then with the Army Ballistic Missile Agency, advanced a theory that he had conceived years earlier for using a booster's spent stage as a space station's basic structure. This later evolved into the 'wet stage' concept for the Skylab Program.
The Project Horizon Phase I report was completed. In it, a U.S. manned landing on the moon in 1965 was proposed, to be followed in 1966 by an operational lunar outpost. Expenditures would average $667 million a year from Fiscal Year 1960 through Fiscal Year 1968. The guiding philosophy of the report was one of "enlightened conservatism of technical approach." On July 28 the report was presented to the Secretary of the Army and the Chief of Staff. Additional Details: here....
Advanced Research Projects Agency representatives visited Army Ordnance Missile Command to discuss studies of a Maneuverable Recoverable Space Vehicle (MRSV). The general purpose was to identify U.S. space needs before 1970 which might require vehicles of this type.