1963 NASA AUTHORIZATION

TUESDAY, MARCH 6, 1962

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND ASTRONAUTICS,

SUBCOMMITTEE ON SPACE SCIENCES,
Washington, D.C.

The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10:24 a.m., in room 100B, George Washington Inn, Hon. Joseph E. Karth (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding.

Mr. KARTH. The meeting will come to order.

Doctor, I have a short prepared initial statement. I have asked that you be furnished with a copy. The subcommittee members have been furnished with a copy and in the saving of time we are going to permit this to be copied into the record.

(The document referred to is as follows:)

OPENING STATEMENT OF CHAIRMAN KARTH

This morning, the Subcommittee on Space Sciences will begin hearings on the space sciences program of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. These hearings will constitute an important part of our consideration of NASA's authorization bill for fiscal year 1963.

As all of you know, the Science and Astronautics Committee has the responsibility of authorizing NASA's programs, and expenditures for those programs, each year. The Subcommittee on Space Sciences has been assigned the specific responsibility of reviewing NASA's requests for the following programs: sounding rockets, scientific satellites, lunar and planetary exploration, Scout, Delta, and Centaur.

Our responsibility also includes authorization of funds for construction in connection with the above, as well as salaries and expenses for personnel assigned to these programs.

From my review of the budget estimates for fiscal year 1963, and the supporting data furnished by NASA, I am convinced that the space sciences programs are extremely important. These programs are designed to provide the scientific knowledge which is necessary to support our Nation's future manned space programs. In addition, information and data concerning the earth's atmosphere, radiation belts, solar flares, and other phenomena in our solar system are being developed which will make possible a greater understanding of our universe. The scientific satellite program also provides an important avenue for international cooperation. The launch vehicle programs, particularly Centaur, are of primary importance to the Nation's space effort, and the committee intends to take a close look at these developments and their management.

This morning, we will take the testimony of Dr. Homer Newell, Director, Office of Space Sciences, National Aeronautics and Space Administration. He is accompanied by Mr. Edgar Cortright, Deputy Director. I want to welcome you gentlemen to the committee.

Dr. Newell has an extensive prepared statement, and I understand slides will be shown during the statement. Following delivery of the statement, the committee will have some questions. I would like to go into each of these programs in some detail. Accordingly, we have scheduled 3 days of hearings this week, and we will probably find it necessary to schedule additional hearings next

week. Therefore, in order to discharge the subcommittee's responsibilities in an orderly fashion, I would suggest that, if time permits a question period today, the members limit questions to sounding rockets and scientific satellites, despite the fact that Dr. Newell may open with a general statement regarding the entire space sciences field. We will take up the other programs at subsequent meetings of the subcommittee.

Mr. KARTH. Now, Dr. Newell, if you would care to begin, the committee would be pleased to hear your statement.

If you would like, I would appreciate it if you would introduce those of your staff who are here and who will participate in the discussion.

Dr. NEWELL. I will be happy to.

To my right is Edgar Cortright, my Deputy in the Office of Space Sciences at NASA. He and I will be presenting the first portion of

our statement.

Behind me is Mr. John Nicolaides, and next to him, Mr. Eldon Taylor, who is the resources witness for us, and Colonel Heaton behind Mr. Nicolaides, who will be talking later on the Centaur problem, and next to him, Dr. Tom Smull, who is the head of our Office of Grants and Research Contracts.

Next to him is Dr. John Clark, who will be speaking later on geophysics and astronomy programs, and next to him, Mr. Oran Nicks, who will be speaking later on lunar and planetary programs.

Mr. KARTH. Doctor, I might say before I ask you to begin on your prepared statement-and I assume you would like to go through this in its entirety-that last night after I returned home from a meeting which was necessary for me to attend, I had the opportunity about midnight to read the first 20 pages, and although I don't consider myself an engineer, or for the record, half an engineer, I might say that this is probably the most technical document that I have had the occasion to read or that I have had the occasion to find being submitted to our committee.

If you think it is necessary for this rather technical report to become a part of the proceedings, I trust you will proceed in that fashion. I do question the relationship that some of this very technical scientific information will have insofar as the committee membership finding it to be of a worthwhile nature in the presentation of their arguments in the support of your budget, if this happens to be called to the subcommittee's attention.

As a result of this report being highly technical, it may be necessary for the committee members to stop you once in a while and ask you if you would just put it in laymen's language, and this would be of great help to us.

Would you proceed, as you will, then, and excuse the interruptions we might make as we go through here to give us a better understanding of just what this thing says.

Dr. NEWELL. We would be glad to answer any questions at any time.

I do think, in describing this document and the purpose of bringing it forth, it might be well to point out that the space science part of the NASA program is in essence technical, and we find it not possible

really to describe our program and our motives and our objectives without getting into some of the technical aspects of the program. Mr. KARTH. I felt, after giving it some consideration last evening, that it might be important that it be given to the committee and later on be written into a committee report for the edification of whoever may want to view the proceedings of this subcommittee and the committee as a whole.

During the process, you just might make some scientists and engineers out of some people.

Go ahead, Doctor.

Dr. NEWELL. Thank you. Before I start on the prepared text, per se, I thought I might review the suggested schedule that Mr. Hammill of your staff has suggested to us, which looks to be a fine arrangement for presenting to you the things that we are doing, and some of the problems that we have.

First, there would be this prepared text. Then, with your permission, tomorrow, Dr. John Clark would review geophysics and astronomy programs. Following that, Mr. Nicks would review lunar and planetary programs; and then because of its very great importance and your own expressed interest in this particular subject, we would like to have Colonel Heaton review for you the launch vehicle and propulsion programs, which will include, of course, the Centaur. Mr. KARTH. Yes, sir, that would be fine, Doctor.

(The biographical sketch of Dr. Homer E. Newell follows:)

HOMER E. NEWELL, DIRECTOR OF OFFICE OF SPACE SCIENCES

Homer E. Newell was named Director of Office of Space Sciences on November 1, 1961. He was formerly Deputy Director of Space Flight Programs.

Before joining the NASA on October 20, 1958, Dr. Newell was Acting Superintendent of the Atmosphere and Astrophysics Division of the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory. He was also science program coordinator for Project Vanguard, the U.S. scientific earth satellite program for the International Geophysical Year.

A native of Holyoke, Mass., Dr. Newell earned both his bachelor and master of arts degrees from Harvard University and his Ph. D. in mathematics degree from the University of Wisconsin in 1940.

From 1940 to 1944 he was an instructor and later assistant professor at the University of Maryland, and a ground instructor in navigation with the Civil Aeronautics Administration from 1942 to 1943.

Dr. Newell joined the Naval Research Laboratory in 1944, and became head of the Rocket Sonde Branch in 1947. In this position, he was in charge of the upper atmosphere research program of NRL. In 1955 he was named Acting Superintendent of the Atmosphere and Astrophysics Division.

His scientific committee memberships have included the Special Subcommit tee on the Upper Atmosphere of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (1947-51), and the Rocket and Satellite Research Panel (formerly Upper Atmosphere Rocket Research Panel) since 1947. He was Chairman of the Rocket and Satellite Research Panel in 1959 and 1960.

Dr. Newell is the author of several technical books and numerous articles. He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Research Society of America, the American Geophysical Union, the American Rocket Society, and he is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and of the American Astronautical Society.

Dr. Newell, his wife, and their four children live in Kensington, Md.

STATEMENT OF DR. HOMER E. NEWELL, DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF SPACE SCIENCES, NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE `ADMINISTRATION; ACCOMPANIED BY MR. EDGAR CORTRIGHT, DEPUTY DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF SPACE SCIENCES; DR. THOMAS SMULL, DIRECTOR, GRANTS AND RESEARCH CONTRACTS, OFFICE OF SPACE SCIENCES; DR. JOHN CLARK, DIRECTOR, GEOPHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY PROGRAMS, OFFICE OF SPACE SCIENCES; MR. ORAN NICKS, DIRECTOR, LUNAR AND PLANETARY PROGRAMS, OFFICE OF SPACE SCIENCES; COL. DONALD HEATON, DIRECTOR, LAUNCH VEHICLE AND PROPULSION PROGRAMS, OFFICE OF SPACE SCIENCES; MR. JOHN NICOLAIDES, DIRECTOR, PROGRAM REVIEW AND RESOURCES MANAGEMENT, OFFICE OF SPACE SCIENCES; AND MR. ELDON TAYLOR, RESOURCES MANAGEMENT OFFICER, OFFICE OF SPACE SCIENCES

Dr. NEWELL. Space science is science carried out in space. (Fig. 353.)

There is nothing mysterious about it, although there is much that is exciting about it.

Space science calls upon a whole variety of disciplines physics, chemistry, astronomy, biosciences, and other scientific disciplines not shown here, to attack some of the most challenging and important scientific problems of today. Among these problems are the investigations of the Earth and Sun, the Moon and planets, stars, and galaxies, and life in space, from the vantage point provided by the orbiting satellite or the deep space probe.

Although the investigations of space sciences are conducted in space, far from the surface of the Earth, this activity of science in space is inseparable from all the rest of science carried out on the Earth. Indeed, one of the remarkable features of space science is its interdisciplinary character. Scientific disciplines that heretofore had gone their separate ways with only mild interactions, now tackle in close partnership the problem of understanding the phenomena and properties of outer space. For example, physics, astronomy, and geophysics are brought together in the investigation of the very important problem of Earth-Sun relationships. (Fig. 354.)

The NASA program of space science is basic research. Its principal objective is the advancement of knowledge. The motivation of the scientists who participate in the program is that disciplined curiosity that leads them to investigate, explore, and dig into the innermost workings of the universe about them. To them the attraction of space science is its breadth and scope, and the opportunity it affords to tackle some of the most important and fundamental problems on the frontiers of science today.

Because of this great breadth and scope of space science, and because of the many basic scientific problems that it encompasses, our country must have a sound and vigorous space science program if we intend to maintain our position of leadership in world science. Such leadership is of great practical importance in today's world in which the value of those ideals and principles for which we stand is measured in the minds of men in terms of achievement and accomplishment.