Homer Edward Newell, Jr. Speech Transcripts

This collection consists of articles and transcripts of speeches by Newell during his tenure with NASA.

Dr. Homer Edward Newell, Jr. (1915 --1983), mathematician and administrator, was the principal organizer of the American space program during the early years of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). He attended Harvard College (AB, 1936; AMT, 1937) and the University of Wisconsin (Ph.D, 1940). He taught mathematics at the University of Maryland (1940 --1944) before joining the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) as a mathematician and theoretical physicist (1944 --1947). Dr. Newell became head of the Rocket Sonde Branch of the NRL (1947 --1955) and later Acting Superintendent of the Atmosphere and Astrophysics Division (1955 --1958). During this time he coordinated the Navy's development of Project Vanguard, which placed the first American satellite in Earth orbit (1958). With the creation of NASA in 1958 Dr. Newell transferred from NRL to become Assistant Director of Space Science (1958 --1960) at NASA. He later served as Deputy Director of Space Flight Programs (1960 --1963) and Director of the Office of Space Science (1963 --1967) before being named Associate Director of NASA (1967 --1973), where he served until he retired in 1973.