Word: webbs
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...insurmountable challenge in straw-bossing the U.S.'s $20 billion man-in-space program. "I think I'm up to it," said Brainerd Holmes, 42, when he took over as Director of Manned Space Flight for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in 1961. NASA Boss James Webb heartily concurred and said: "He has every quality it takes to get the job done." And so it seemed. Under Holmes's guidance, the U.S. launched five successful manned flights, developed detailed plans for a race to the moon and opened the massive new Manned Space Flight Centerin Houston...
...there were other, earthier problems. Webb quickly decided that Holmes (TIME Cover, Aug. 10) attached entirely too much urgency to the moon race and upstaged Webb's own pet scientific probes as a result. Late last year, Holmes asked an additional $400 million for the moon program. Webb curtly refused to take the request to Congress, and Holmes put up a fuss. After that, Webb began bypassing Holmes and going to other officials for advice in policy decisions...
When argument broke out, after Gordon Cooper's 22-orbit mission, about whether to continue Project Mercury, Holmes again was ignored. Though Holmes personally opposed another Mercury flight because of the high cost, Webb and other high NASA officials publicly dubbed it "unlikely," without once consulting him. The astronauts paid no attention to Holmes either, and got in their own high-level politicking in favor of the flight over cocktails with President Kennedy at Cooper's Washington reception...
...tunnel of horrors, lost several million dollars last year. His scheme for selling his hotels and leasing them back has backfired because of falling occupancy rates and higher costs. The softening real estate market has forced him to defer many of his plans to sell off Webb & Knapp buildings to raise cash. And, to top it all off, the New York Stock Exchange finally turned down the two-block site near Wall Street that Zeckendorf had proposed for its new home, decided on another instead. All told, Webb & Knapp last year lost...
...usual, Zeckendorf hopes to pull out of his present bind by selling off properties, but that will take some doing. Webb & Knapp's recently released 1962 annual report is a textbook of corporate debt and declining assets; its long-term debt is an astonishing 83% of its assets. Webb & Knapp's finances are sometimes so complicated that its own auditors are unable to unravel them. Two months ago, outside auditors had to be called in to double-check some calculations. The result: instead of the previously reported $5,000,000 profit for 1962's second and third...