50 years ago, on the way to the Moon…
On March 25, 1968, Thomas O. Paine was sworn in as NASA’s Deputy Administrator. The Agency had been without a second-in-command since the resignation of Robert C. Seamans in October 1967, although he stayed on in a consultant role until his successor was named. Paine was an outsider to NASA; although he had aerospace experience he had no prior experience working with the federal bureaucracy. Born in Berkeley, CA, in 1921, he received a Bachelor’s degree in engineering from Brown University, and Master’s and Doctorate degrees in metallurgy from Stanford University. He joined the General Electric Corporation in 1949 and was manager of its Center for Advanced Studies when selected for his NASA position.
The Deputy Administrator position is a presidential appointment, and Paine met with President Lyndon B. Johnson on January 31. The President formally appointed Paine the next day and he won Congressional approval the following week. Paine’s extensive experience as a scientist, engineer and manager became very useful in his position as Deputy Administrator as NASA was still working to recover from the Apollo fire and meet President Kennedy’s goal of landing a man on the Moon before the end of the decade. Later in the year, Paine would be a key player in the decision to send Apollo 8 to the Moon.
On March 31, President Johnson surprised the nation by announcing that he would not run for re-election. NASA Administrator James E. Webb, a close ally of Johnson, didn’t want to stay on until a new President was inaugurated in 1969. Webb announced his resignation in October, thus Paine served as Acting Administrator by the time Apollo 8 circled the Moon. When he took office President Richard M. Nixon would ask Paine to stay on as Administrator, and in July 1969, the two men would meet on the aircraft carrier USS Hornet to welcome home the Apollo 11 crew from the Moon.