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3. Significant technical developments including problems which have come up in the work.

4. Summary of developments for specific applications now in progress such as the SNAP-7 series.

5. Plans for development of SNAP units for new applications for which specific requirements are not yet available (satellite communication power supplies, navigation aids, Surveyor power supply, etc.).

6. Safety investigations, including results of atmospheric burnup tests and plans for SNAP-10A flight tests.

Witnesses

1. Atomic Energy Commission. 2. Atomics International.

3. Martin Co.

It may be appropriate to receive testimony from prospective users of SNAP devices, such as representatives of NASA and the armed services. We would appreciate your comments on this.

PLUTO PROJECTS

The subjects we would like to cover in the Pluto hearing are as follows:

1. Present status of the project and plans for additional power experiments this summer and fall.

2. Plans for follow-on development work after the Tory-II-c experiment including flight test plans.

3. Status of application work for the Pluto ramjet engine including the status of vehicle development work.

Witnesses

1. Atomic Energy Commission.

2. Livermore Radiation Laboratory.

As indicated in the attached letter to the Department of Defense we are also requesting testimony from the Department of Defense on application plans for Pluto.

Sincerely yours,

MELVIN PRICE,

Chairman, Subcommittee on Research, Development, and Radiation.

Mr. JAMES E. WEBB,

JOINT COMMITTEE ON ATOMIC ENERGY,
CONGRESS OF THE UNITED States,

Administrator, National Aeronautics and Space Administration,

Washington, D.CO.

August 7, 1961.

DEAR MR. WEBB: The Subcommittee on Research, Development, and Radiation of the Joint Committee has scheduled hearings on the Rover project for August 29. We would appreciate receiving testimony from you at this hearing.

Attached is an outline for the hearing, which includes specific subjects we would like to cover and other witnesses we have invited to testify.

We would particularly appreciate receiving testimony from you on the integration of the Rover rocket development program into the chemical rocket and vehicle development program. We are particularly interested in obtaining information on nuclear rocket flight test plans and plans for including the nuclear rocket engine as an alternate engine for the lunar mission vehicle. Your cooperation will be greatly appreciated.

Sincerely yours,

MELVIN PRICE,

Chairman, Subcommittee on Research, Development, and Radiation.

ROVER NUCLEAR ROCKET PROJECT

Hearings scheduled before the Research, Development, and Radiation Subcommittee of the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, August 29, 1961

SUBJECTS TO BE COVERED

1. Summary of actions taken since the President's May 25, 1961, announcement of plans to accelerate Rover.

2. What has been set as the mission of the nuclear rocket. For example, has the nuclear rocket been assigned a job in the moon mission which the President recommended as a national objective in his May 25 address?

3. Contractual arrangements with Aerojet and Westinghouse.

4. The flight test program, including plans for integration of the nuclear engine with NASA's chemical engine and vehicle programs.

5. Status of work in preparation for next series of power tests (Kiwi B series), covering such items as delays which have occurred in the construction of test facilties, effect of the labor strikes at the Nevada test site, etc.

6. AEC and NASA funding plans for fiscal year 1962 and the following years. Witnesses

1. Atomic Energy Commission.

2. National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

3. Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory.

Representatives of the principal industrial contractors on the NERVA project, Aerojet General Corp., and Westinghouse Electric Corp., will also be present to answer any specific questions that may come up on their phases of the work,

[No. 328—August 13, 1961]

JOINT COMMITTEE ON ATOMIC Energy ANNOUNCES NUCLEAR ROCKET HEARINGS Public hearings on progress being made in the development of nuclear rockets and other atomic energy devices for use in space will be held August 28 and 29, 1961, it was announced today by Congressman Melvin Price, chairman of the Subcommittee on Research, Development, and Radiation of the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy.

The hearings will cover developments in the joint AEC-NASA nuclear rocket program (Project Rover), the development of long-lived nuclear power supplies (SNAP program), and the development of a nuclear ramjet engine to power missiles traveling in the atmosphere (Project Pluto).

In announcing these hearings, Congressman Price stressed the vital importance of the role of atomic energy in the attainment of supremacy in space. In commenting on the hearings, Congressman Price said:

"Recently we have seen the Soviets circle the world. We have lost that racebut we cannot and must not lose the race into outer space. I believe that the use of nuclear power for space travel is the key to bridging the gap between the United States and the U.S.S.R. in this last frontier."

Witnesses who have been invited to these hearings include Dr. Glenn Seaborg, Chairman, AEC; Mr. James Webb, Director, NASA; and Dr. Harold Brown, Director, Defense Research and Engineering, Department of Defense. The hearings will be held in the Old Supreme Court chamber, room P-63, in the Capitol, beginning at 2 p.m. on August 28.

OUTLINE OF ROVER, SNAP, AND PLUTO DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM

Hearings before the Subcommittee on Research, Development and Radiation of the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, August 28 and 29, 1961

1. ROVER NUCLEAR ROCKET HEARING, 2 P.M., AUGUST 28

Subjects to be covered

1. Summary of actions taken since the President's May 25, 1961, announcement of plans to accelerate Rover.

2. The mission of the nuclear rocket. For example, has the nuclear rocket been assigned a job in the moon mission which the President recommended as a national objective in his May 25 address?

3. Contractual arrangements with Aerojet and Westinghouse.

4. The flight test program, including plans for integration of the nuclear engine with NASA's chemical engine and vehicle programs.

5. Status of work in preparation for the next series of power tests (Kiwi B series), covering such items as delays which have occurred in the construction of test facilities, effect of the strikes at the Nevada test site, etc.

6. AEC and NASA funding plans for fiscal year 1962 and following years. Witnesses

1. Atomic Energy Commission.

2. National Space and Aeronautics Administration.

3. Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory.

II. SNAP HEARINGS, 10 a.m., auguST 29

Subjects to be covered

1. AEC organization for carrying out the SNAP program.

2. Program and budget plans for fiscal year 1962.

3. Significant technical developments including problems which have come up in the work.

4. Summary of developments for specific applications now in progress such as the SNAP-7 series.

5. Plans for development of SNAP units for new applications for which specific requirements are not yet available. (Satellite communication power supplies, navigation aids, surveyor power supply, etc.)

6. Safety investigations, including results of atmospheric burnup tests and plans for SNAP-10A flight tests.

Witnesses

1. Atomic Energy Commission.

2. Atomics International, Division of North American Aviation, Inc. 3. Martin Co.

III. PLUTO NUCLEAR RAMJET PROJECT, 2 P.M., AUGUST 29

Subjects to be covered

1. Status of the project and plans for additional power experiments this summer and fall.

2. Plans for follow-on development work after the Tory-II-C experiment including flight test plans.

3. Air Force plans for using the Pluto ramjet engine.

Witnesses

1. Atomic Energy Commission.

2. Department of Defense.

3. Lawrence Radiation Laboratory, Livermore, Calif.

[No. 329-August 20, 1961]

ROVER NUCLEAR ROCKET HEARINGS WITNESSES ANNOUNCED

Congressman Melvin Price, chairman of the Subcommittee on Research, Development, and Radiation of the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy announced he witnesses for the nuclear rocket hearings which are scheduled to begin at 2 p.m., Monday, August 28, 1961. The hearings are scheduled to be held in room P-63, the Old Supreme Court Chamber of the Capitol Building.

The witnesses for the Monday afternoon hearing are,:

Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg, Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission.

James E. Webb, Administrator, National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Harold Finger, Manager, Space Nuclear Propulsion Office, Atomic Energy Commission.

Dr. R. E. Schreiber, Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory.

The opening session of these hearings will cover progress to date on the nuclear rocket program (Project Rover). Included in this briefing will be a report on the part the nuclear rocket engine will play in the manned exploration of he moon.

On Tuesday, August 29, 1961, at 10 a.m., the hearings will continue covering progress in the development of long-lived nuclear power supplies (SNAP program).

Tuesday afternoon at 2 p.m. testimony will be received on progress in the development of a nuclear ramjet engine to power missiles traveling in the atmosphere (Project Pluto).

The topics to be covered in these hearings were announced in Joint Committee on Atomic Energy release No. 328, dated August 13, 1961.

Representative PRICE. Now I would like to introduce Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg, Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission who is our first witness.

Dr. Seaborg, I am sorry that this hearing had to be scheduled during the period of your well deserved vacation. I want to thank you for coming here to testify on this very important project.

STATEMENT OF DR. GLENN T. SEABORG, CHAIRMAN, ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION; ACCOMPANIED BY ROBERT WILSON, MEMBER OF THE ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION; JAMES E. WEBB, ADMINISTRATOR, NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION, AND HAROLD B. FINGER, MANAGER, SPACE NUCLEAR PROPULSION OFFICE, ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION

Dr. SEABORG. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It is a pleasure for me to appear here this afternoon to discuss this subject, along with the key members of the staff of the Atomic Energy Commission, including Commissioner Robert Wilson who is also sitting up here at the table. I am particularly pleased to appear here with Mr. Webb, Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Agency. I am in a position to report on several key areas where significant progress has been made in the Rover, SNAP, and Pluto programs since our last appearance date. Important technical results which have been achieved in these programs include the first actual utilization in space of a nuclear energy source in the Transit IV satellite launched June 29 of this year and which is still operating very well, and the first successful operation of a nuclear ramjet-type reactor on the 14th of May at the Nevada test site. In the safety area we have also made significant progress and on the 31st of July the first of a series of reentry burnup tests was successfully conducted as a result of capsule ejection from an Atlas missile launched from Cape Canaveral.

The technical results I have just noted represent only the early stages of what will be a continuing and expanding number of achievements in these areas. I would expect that beside the successful flighttest of a nuclear rocket sometime in the future, we could look forward to nuclear-powered communication satellites, perhaps with television broadcasting facilities; nuclear power adapted to ion propulsion and the many other space needs; and other terrestrial uses of compact reactor or radioisotope power sources similar to the remote weather station now installed in northern Canada and powered by the radioisotope strontium 90.

Today, I plan to summarize the status and plans of the Rover project and will respond insofar as possible to the relevant questions raised in your letter of August 7, 1961. Commissioner Wilson will summarize the status and plans of the SNAP and Pluto projects tomorrow and respond to the remaining questions in your letter. Dr. Pittman

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and members of his staff as well as representatives of other Government agencies and of principal contractors working on these projects are present to provide further details as desired.

Before going into the specific projects I would like to discuss briefly the effect of the recent overall Commission reorganization as well as the reorganization of the Division of Reactor Development on the Rover, SNAP, and Pluto programs. The changes in the Commission's organizational pattern were primarily aimed at providing more effective management of AEC programs, shortening the lines of communications throughout our program, and relieving the operating divisions of the burdensome administrative duties which had previously diluted their attention of technical programs. The technical direction of the three programs under discussion will not be modified by these changes. The Division of Reactor Development will, as in the past, continue to exercise full technical programmatic control of Rover, Pluto, and SNAP.

The reorganization of the Division of Reactor Development has no direct effect on the management of the Rover program, but it does modify the chain of program direction for SNAP and Pluto within the Division. These two programs were previously directed by the Joint AEC-DOD Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion Office. This joint office has been abolished and the Pluto and SNAP programs, together with work on advanced concepts, direct conversion, and nuclear technology have been placed directly under a newly established AEC position of Associate Director for Advanced Systems. This move will allow us to develop programs which clearly take into account the needs of the DOD, as well as of all other Government agencies, and which are closely integrated with other advanced work of a similar nature.

This afternoon we are scheduled to discuss the status of the Rover program. Mr. Webb and I have met frequently to discuss various aspects of the Rover program and we are in complete agreement regarding its importance in this Nation's long-term efforts in space and in the urgency of actively pursuing the program. The successful conduct of the Rover program is dependent upon effective utilization of the unique capabilities available in the NASA and in the AEC in our respective areas of interest and responsibility. Neither agency can effectively develop a nuclear rocket propulsion system without the collaboration of the other.

In discussing the status of Rover, I will cover in general terms the answers to certain of the questions that the subcommittee has raised. Mr. Webb, I understand, will comment on several of the topics. Mr. Finger, who is the manager of the Joint AEC-NASA Space Nuclear Propulsion Office, is prepared to discuss these matters in whatever further detail the subcommittee may feel appropriate. Representatives of the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory and representatives of the industrial contractor team selected for the first phase of the NERVA engine development program which is to lead to the eventual nuclear rocket capable of flight operation are also here to answer any specific questions you may have.

As you indicated, the President on May 25, 1961, recommended a substantial increase in our national effort aimed at achieving a leading position in space exploration and in the utilization of satellite

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