Chapter 74

“Professor Lin, you’ve finally arrived.”

James Webb, at the Red Stone Base, embraced Lin Ran warmly upon seeing him.

He had no choice but to be warm.

He had been appointed NASA Administrator half a month before Lin Ran, and clearly, in a place where PhDs walked like commoners and master’s degrees were worthless, a former lawyer like him struggled to quickly gain control.

The current White House set their goal: to complete a manned lunar landing within Kennedy’s term.

Kennedy had not yet publicly announced the lunar mission, but everyone at the White House and NASA knew it well—it was their most critical task.

NASA currently lacked the confidence to inspire anyone; even within its own ranks, people doubted they could succeed.

“Sir, that’s right. I thought Mr. Johnson would give me some time, but he just issued an order and shipped me straight from Washington D.C. to Alabama,” Lin Ran joked.

James Webb explained: “That’s Johnson’s style—simple and direct.”

“You’ll get used to it.”

He then pulled a stack of documents from his oak desk drawer and handed them to Lin Ran:

“Professor Lin, these are NASA’s key tasks this year.”

“Including the first spaceflight in two months; if successful, a second suborbital flight will follow in July.”

“Also this year, we plan to launch the Ranger program—sending probes to the Moon to take photographs.”

“These are NASA’s official plans; the stack beneath is what I want to do.”

“Since NASA was founded only three years ago, it’s less an institution than a loose alliance of multiple research centers—including Langley, Lewis, and Goddard—lacking unified direction and plagued by chaotic management.”

“I’ve outlined a plan to restructure NASA’s entire organization.”

“Our current annual budget is five hundred million dollars—far too little. I believe it must rise to at least one billion dollars to achieve a manned lunar landing by the end of the 1960s.”

“That’s my general vision. After you review it, I hope you’ll organize your thoughts and give me a prompt reply—I’m eager for your suggestions.”

James Webb knew the scope of Lin Ran’s authority and had no objection to giving this great mathematician an opportunity—if the man truly demonstrated sufficient capability.

He would manage operations; Lin Ran would oversee technical direction.

Even without Lin Ran, James Webb would have granted similar authority to Deputy Administrator Hugh Dryden, to jointly make decisions with him.

Now that Lin Ran was here, James Webb wanted to see what he was made of—whether he could shoulder this heavy responsibility.

After taking the stack from Webb’s hands, Lin Ran nodded: “Alright, I’ll give you a reply as soon as possible.”

Then came a half-month silence. During this time, Lin Ran did nothing beyond gaining a detailed understanding of NASA’s upcoming suborbital flight.

Of course, during these half-months, Lin Ran didn’t act alone—he kept pulling James Webb along.

“Mr. Webb, for the next half-month, I need you to come with me. I have a rough idea, but you must witness it—so it’s clear I’m not sabotaging anything.”

Lin Ran insisted on dragging James Webb along, even though Webb felt overwhelmed, tangled in chaos, with too much work piling up.

Webb’s job was reform—restructuring NASA’s foundational architecture. Faced with Lin Ran’s request, he was baffled: “What exactly do you want me to do?”

Lin Ran explained: “Our first manned space mission begins in May. The Freedom 7 spacecraft was delivered to Cape Canaveral on December 9 last year.”

“It will serve as the vehicle for this manned mission.”

“The original launch plan was December last year—the moment it arrived at Cape Canaveral.”

“Later, they discovered issues with the reaction control system, so it was delayed to March 6—five days from now.”

“But due to a minor problem with the launch apparatus, the launch must be delayed again; we need to redo simulations and equipment calibration.”

“The current schedule is May 2. The reinstallation of the reaction control system happens in five days—I need you to come with me and watch how they do it.”

“I have some insights, but I need to see it firsthand.”

“Also, I must prove this mission’s failure has nothing to do with me—it’s not my doing.”

"So you must be fully involved. And ideally, the White House should send another trusted person to observe the entire process."

James Webb immediately perked up: “Are you implying this manned space mission will fail?”

America simply couldn’t afford another failure.

The Soviets had already sent Gagarin into space. If we fail again, not only will the enemy’s press mock us, but America’s own press will too.

James Webb came to NASA to make it great—not to turn it into another joke.

Lin Ran said: “Hasn’t NASA suffered enough failures over the past five years?”

“I even counted them all during the hearings—more than one hand can hold.”

“Add this manned mission, and we’ve already had two delays—pushed from October to this May.”

“Would it be strange if another problem arose?”

“Sir, you must treat NASA’s failures as normal—and its successes as rare.”

James Webb fell silent, because Lin Ran was right.

In his month-plus at NASA, he’d seen countless internal files stamped with “failure.”

Precisely because he’d seen so many failures, he wanted to restructure the organization.

Lin Ran continued: “Opportunities often hide within difficulties.”

“I sense this might be a perfect chance to reshape NASA’s image in the public eye.”

“Not only can we rebuild how the public sees NASA, but we can also make our organizational restructuring smoother.”

After listening, James Webb said: “Professor Lin, tell me what to do—I’ll fully support you.”

“Let’s go together to Cape Canaveral and personally observe the reinstallation of Freedom 7’s reaction control system.”

Lin Ran knew well: during Alan Shepard’s historic manned flight aboard Freedom 7, a critical control system failure occurred—the automatic attitude control failed to correct the spacecraft’s roll, forcing Shepard to manually stabilize it.

To Lin Ran, this failure was an opportunity—an excellent chance to seize greater influence and authority.