TheSpace Task Group was a working group ofNASA engineers created in 1958, tasked with managing America'shuman spaceflight programs. Headed byRobert Gilruth and based at theLangley Research Center inHampton, Virginia, it managedProject Mercury and follow-on plans. After PresidentJohn F. Kennedy set the goal in 1961 for theApollo Program to land a man on the Moon and bring him back safely to Earth, NASA decided a much larger organization and a new facility was required to perform the Task Group's function, and it was transformed into the Manned Spacecraft Center (now theLyndon B. Johnson Space Center), located inHouston, Texas.

In later years, the termSpace Task Group was ambiguously reused to refer to anad hoc committee appointed by thePresident to recommend human spaceflight programs, usually chaired by theVice President. For instance, PresidentRichard Nixon appointed such a group in February 1969 to outline a post-Apollo spaceflight strategy, chaired by Vice PresidentSpiro T. Agnew.^[1]

Created on November 5, 1958, the Space Task Group was headed byRobert Gilruth. Originally it consisted of 45 people, including eight secretaries and "computers", the occupational title for women who ran calculations on mechanical adding machines. Of its 37 engineers, 27 were fromLangley Research Center, and 10 had been assigned fromLewis Research Center inCleveland, Ohio. Original members of the group includedCharles Donlan, Gilruth's deputy;Max Faget, head of engineering; Chuck Mathews, head of flight operations;Chris Kraft, also in flight operations; andGlynn Lunney, who at 21 was the youngest member of the group. The head of the public affairs office wasJohn "Shorty" Powers.

In 1959, the group was expanded by the addition of 32 engineers from Canada, who had been left without jobs when theAvro Arrow project was cancelled.^[2] These new engineers includedJim Chamberlin,George Harris,John Hodge,Owen Maynard,Bryan Erb,Rodney Rose, andTecwyn Roberts.^[3]

After President John F. Kennedy set the national goal on May 25, 1961, of landing a man on the Moon by the end of the 1960s and bringing him back to Earth, it became clear to NASA administratorJames E. Webb that Gilruth would need a much larger organization and facilities, in fact a new dedicated NASA center, to administer US human spaceflight programs. Webb got the approval of Kennedy, and the Congress, and in August 1961 appointed a team to select a site for the new center. On September 19, Webb announced the newManned Spacecraft Center (MSC) would be built on aHouston, Texas site donated byRice University. Gilruth immediately began the transition of his Task Group into the new MSC, planning his increased staff organization and its move to Houston, using temporary leased office and test facility space on 12 sites while the new facility was being built. By September 1962, his organization was moved to Houston and construction had begun, effectively marking the end of the Task Group. The MSC facility was completed in September 1963.

TheNational Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958, which established NASA, also directed the President of the United States to chair a National Aeronautics and Space Council (later theNational Space Council), including the Secretaries of State and Defense, the NASA Administrator, the Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, and any additional members that the president chose to appoint. This council was tasked with making recommendations on the direction of the US civilian and military space programs. Occasionally this council was referred to as a "Space Task Group". PresidentJohn F. Kennedy persuaded Congress to modify the law to give him the authority to appoint the Vice President to chair the council in his place. As theApollo program reached its climax in 1969, PresidentRichard M. Nixon directed Vice PresidentSpiro T. Agnew's "Space Task Group" to recommend a future direction of the US human spaceflight program. Agnew enthusiastically supported an ambitiousSpace Transportation System program including reusable spacecraft, permanent Earth and Lunar stations, and human flight toMars. However, Nixon knew the mood in the US Congress would not continue to sustain funding at the level of Apollo, and cut these plans back to only the development of theSpace Shuttle, with possible eventual establishment of an Earth orbital space station.

• Gainor, Chris (2001).Arrows to the Moon - Avro's Engineers and the Space Race. Burlington ON Canada: Apogee Books.ISBN 1-896522-83-1.
• Murray, Charles; Catherine Bly Cox (1989).Apollo: The Race to the Moon. New York: Simon and Schuster.ISBN 0-671-61101-1.
• Swenson, Jr., Loyd S.; James M. Grimwood; Charles C. Alexander (1989).This New Ocean: A History of Project Mercury. NASA. Archived fromthe original on 2007-08-23.

• Space Task Group Organizational Charts

• NASA groups, organizations, and centers
• Project Mercury
• 1958 establishments in the United States

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