TELEPHONE CONVERSATION WITH DR. WERNHER VON BRAUN, DIRECTOR, MARSHALL SPACE FLIGHT CENTER

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP71R00510A000200220025-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 17, 2009
• Sequence Number: 25
• Publication Date: September 25, 1968
• Content Type: MFR

Approved For Release 2009/06/17: CIA-RDP71 R0051 0A000200220025-3
Copy 1 of copies
25 September 1968
MEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD
SUBJECT: Telephone Conversation with Dr. Wernher von Braun,
Director, Marshall Space Flight Center
State Dept. review completed
1. Dr. von Braun called me via secure phone specifically to
get brought up-to-date on the details of the Zond 5 flight. He explained
that he had a strong interest in this event because of his position in the
U.S. manned space flight program. He added that he was soon to leave
for New York for an interview by the CBS radio network and that he
suspected he would be questioned on the Zond 5 flight. I briefed him
orally on the Zond 5 flight, and in particular on the possible configuration
of the spacecraft. Since Dr. von Braun is SI-TK cleared I divulged to
him a considerable amount of information we have from these sources.
2. Dr. von Braun then asked me what he could say regarding
the Zond 5 flight that was unclassified. I told him that it would be
perfectly proper to point to the recovery of an object returning from the
moon as a significant milestone in the path to a manned lunar landing,
but I advised him to avoid suggesting that the Zond 5 booster could
support a lunar landing or even a manned lunar orbiter, because it does
not actually have the payload capability. I added that I thought it
would be perfectly proper for him to make a personal judgment that this
flight might well be followed up by another unmanned circumlunar flight
and that if it was successful the Russians might attempt a manned
circumlunar mission either late this year or sometime next year.
3. I also pointed out to him that the facts of the announced
launch time and the announced recovery time and recovery location
could be used to justify a tie-in of the Zond 5 mission to an ultimate
manned mission. This is because if the long-term objective of the
Soviets had only been to fly unmanned circumlunar shots, they could
have shaped the trajectory so as to come back to the U.S.S.R. ballistically
RE COPY
NASA Review Completed.
Approved For Release 2009/06/17: CIA-RDP71 R0051 0A000200220025-3
 Approved For Release 2009/06/17: CIA-RDP71 R0051 OA000200220025-3 ?5X1
U'~J LI_.. u~J
Page
with very high "g" loads on reentry. Landing the vehicle south of 25X1
the Equator was the only way a vehicle launched from the U.S. S. R.
on a circumlunar free-return trajectory could have returned to earth
ballistically without encountering "g" loads too high for human beings
to tolerate. The foregoing does not use any classified information but
merely derives from a knowledge of celestial mechanics together with
the particulars on the flight given out by the Soviets.
4. Von Braun then asked if he could refer in any way to the
large booster now erected at area "I". I told him that this information
was still highly classified. However, I did say that if he chose to
quote statements by Mr. Webb on this subject, I doubted whether any
reprisals would be taken by the intelligence community.
25X1
DAVID S. BRANDWEIN
Director
Foreign Missile and Space Analysis Center
25X1
TOP SU"u~
Approved For Release 2009/06/17: CIA-RDP71 R0051 OA000200220025-3