Engineers (COE) reported expenditures of $22,087,451.21 against obligations of $22,087,459. Added to this,  approximately $1.5 million had been spent on an engineering building at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in support of the JUPITER program. Thus, the  construction program stayed well within its authority 24 . Despite the crash connotation placed on the weapon's development, the construction program did not move with the speed this implied. During  December 1956, ABMA sent a message to OCO, the gist of which was largely justification for the facilities to be constructed, modified, or expanded.  Moreover, ABMA pointed out that these facilities could be used at a later date, with little, if any, change for other guided and ballistic missile development  programs. Only five projects had made any significant progress by 30 November 1956 —10 to 30 per cent— and these were still a considerable time away  from effective use. On the others, there was no progress or a mere one per cent 25 . The situation of "make do" with what they had in 1956 was far from satisfactory. A good example, in this respect, although reported much earlier in the year than the December message, was the missile assembly and inspection hangar. As already stated, the original facility was constructed in 1953 to provide for the production of one REDSTONE missile per month. This facility was totally inadequate for the 1956 production work, and an expansion request was placed in the amount of $2,401 million. At that time, the production goal was two missiles per month, but there were other factors involved besides this. For one __________________________

24. Ibid.; Ltr, ABMA to COFORD, 29 Jun 56, subj: Revision of FY 57 MCA Prog of JUP, in ABMA Ref Book, subj: Facil, MCA; Msg, 289/05, COE, 5 Jan 62, Mobile Dist to ABMA. See Appdx 3 for listing of projects in the FY 1957 MCA program. 25. Msg, ORDAB-E-220, CG, ABMA to C0F0RD, c. Dec 56, in ABMA Ref Book, subj: Facil, MCA. 26. MFR, Col J. G. Zierdt, Chf, ABMA Cont Off, 28 Apr 56, subj: FY 57 MCA Constr in the JUP Prog, in ABMA Ref Book, subj: Facil, MCA.