NASA AUTHORIZATION FOR FISCAL YEAR 1965

Part 1-Scientific and Technical Programs

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4, 1965

U.S. SENATE,

COMMITTEE ON AERONAUTICAL AND SPACE SCIENCES,

Washington, D.C. The committee met, pursuant to call, at 10 a.m., in room 235, Senate Office Building, Senator Clinton P. Anderson (chairman) presiding.

Present: Senators Anderson, Symington, Stennis, Young, Cannon, Smith, Case, Hickenlooper, and Keating.

Also present: Frank C. Di Luzio, staff director; Everard H. Smith, Jr., chief counsel; William J. Deachman and Dr. Glen P. Wilson, professional staff members; Col. Harry N. Tufts, facilities assistant; Craig Voorhees, management and budget analyst; and Eilene Galloway, special consultant.

OPENING STATEMENT OF THE CHAIRMAN

We are

The CHAIRMAN. The committee will please come to order. meeting today to begin hearings in connection with S. 2446, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's authorization request for fiscal year 1965.

Before proceeding further I would like to point out that at each Senator's place for their reference there is a copy of proofs entitled, "Part 1: Scientific and Technical Programs." At my request this material was prepared by officials at NASA in order that the committee members might be brought up to date on NASA's technical programs. There is no policy involved in this publication as it contains only technical material concerning NASA's programs. If there is no objection, I will have this valuable reference material printed as part 1 of these hearings.

(The material referred to follows:)

INTRODUCTION

BY JAMES E. WEBB, ADMINISTRATOR, NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION

The technical program activity which is contemplated in the President's authorization request for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration for fiscal year 1965 can be evaluated most effectively in the context of the achievements made in these programs since the passage of the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958. In a sense, we are at a turning point in the space program when our

judgment of the future may be sharpened by an assessment of the past, and it is appropriate therefore to review briefly some of the achievements of our first 5 years in space. What resources has the United States developed? What skills have been acquired? What benefits have accrued? Do the results obtained support continuation of a major investment in this newly opened arena-space?

More than two-thirds of the 200 satellites and interplanetary probes launched in space have been the product of U.S. scientists and engineers. The scientific data collected by these space vehicles is greatly extending many of the natural sciences, bringing answers to questions which have perplexed mankind from the earliest days of human existence on earth. The first U.S. satellite confirmed the existence of the great radiation belt which surrounds the Earth and the characteristics of this belt have been further defined by many subsequent vehicles. Another early satellite discovered that the Earth, rather than being an oblate spheroid as had been supposed, is actually slightly flattened at the poles. Subsequently, it was also discovered that a slight bulge exists at the equator giving the Earth a pear shape. Not only did these discoveries have great scientific significance but they are of extreme importance to the military in plotting flights and targets, to the cartographers, and in space navigation.

Satellite observations of the ionosphere, not only by this country's scientists but by those of Canada and Great Britain, have explained many of the mysteries regarding this great band of thin ionized gases at the top of the atmosphere, which profoundly affects radio transmission. This knowledge has led to a project which involves the mapping of the ionosphere through at least one complete 11-year solar cycle to gain knowledge of value not only for civilian and scientific purposes but to the military agencies, as well.

Satellites have also detected the presence of a layer of helium which surrounds the Earth in a band nearly 1,000 miles deep beginning at an altitude of about 600 miles and the possibility of a huge ring of hydrogen extending out to some 6,000 miles. Within this area a concentration of cosmic dust has been discovered which scientists believe may be related to periods of heavy rainfall on Earth.

Other space phenomena detected by satellite observations include measurements of the solar wind, of solar flares, of micrometeorite activity, and numerous other observations which continue to be revealed in some 40 miles of magnetic tape which record satellite observations at the Goddard Space Flight Center each day. Some of the information returned, particularly that gathered in intergalactic space, gives promise of answering fundamental questions about the origin and development of the universe, and providing a basis from which to predict the future.

Perhaps the most exciting and profitable scientific venture in space to date was the flight of MARINER II in late 1962. This remarkable spacecraft transmitted more than 65 million bits of information to Earth, operating to a record distance of nearly 54 million miles from the Earth. En route to Venus it affirmed the concentration of cosmic dust near the Earth, and found that the amount of radiation encountered was significantly less than had been anticipated. It registered an 800° surface temperature on Venus-too high to sustain life as we know it-detected no water vapor and no

cosmic dust. It also determined that the planet has no apparent rotation or magnetic field.

These are but a few of the scientific results obtained in the first years of the Nation's effort in space. Reviewing their worth, the January issue of Fortune magazine had this to say:

*** new knowledge is a dukedom whose great wealth and resources cannot even begin to be estimated or exhausted. Already the new knowledge acquired in space exceeds by far the value of funds so far spent. For knowledge, more than guns and butter, is the true power of modern states.

And the technological balance of power is increasingly the major concern of the leaders of both weak and strong nations.

The early years of the space program have brought tangible results in more practical areas, as well, including the achievements of the applications satellites in communications and meteorology. The TELSTAR and RELAY vehicles have demonstrated the feasibility of satellite communications of all sorts, including the transmission of television broadcasts on a worldwide basis. The SYNCOM satellite, placed in a nearly stationary orbit in what was the most complex demonstration of guidance yet achieved, proved the feasibility of a satellite communications systems which could virtually cover the globe with only three spacecraft in orbit.

The TIROS meteorological satellites have been so successful that their value is well known throughout the world, and we have become accustomed to rely on weather data based upon their operations. The Weather Bureau is now moving toward operational use of these satellites, and a new automatic picture transmission system has been devised which will permit any nation or unit of our Armed Forces to obtain photographs of the cloud cover over its own area as the satellite passes overhead.

The Nation's space investment during the past 5 years has produced a substantial structure of basic resources which will be available to meet military needs and serve civilian purposes in the years ahead. In addition to the building of very large boosters and spacecraft for experimental manned operations, we have developed the operational systems which will permit their extensive use, when and as needed, and have made the capital investment in large engineering complexes for their assembly, test, and launching. We have developed and are installing the large environmental chambers, centrifuges, and simulators for astronaut preparation and training, as well as a worldwide. tracking and data acquisiton network feeding into an integrated mission control center through which a number of flights can be controlled simultaneously.

Meanwhile, we have acquired operational experience which is teaching us how to use space, not only with instrumented spacecraft, but with manned craft as well. This experience included some 55 hours of manned flight in the MERCURY program, and will encompass about 2,000 hours of space flight in the GEMINI and APOLLO programs before the first astronauts depart for the Moon.

Some of our most stubborn problems and some of our greatest successes are related to the fact that it has been necessary to develop entirely new means of organizing large-scale research and development efforts devoted to the same areas which have provided our industrial strength and which, now more than ever, underlie future economic growth for this Nation-the use of energy in both large and small

amounts under close control; advanced electronics, guidance, and control systems; the use of the most advanced new materials, fabrics, lubricants, etc.; the integration of research in the physical sciences with that in the life sciences; and the organization of the entire effort through systems management concepts based on knowledge gained from previous large programs such as the POLARIS and other ballistic missile programs.

The success of much of this work depends on highly imaginative scientific research in the physical sciences such as physics and chemistry, in mathematics, in biology, and on the rapid translation into utilization of this knowledge through advanced industrial technological applications and engineering. Large parts of this work, both scientific and technical, cut across the lines of many disciplines. In a growing number of cases, success seems best assured if it is carried out in university laboratories in connection with graduate programs, or by industry working in close association with broad university multidisciplinary participation.

These, then, are the specific resources which are being developed. But not to be overlooked are many other factors which will undergird U.S. space power and position in the technological balance of power in the years ahead.

These include the framework of policy and action to carry out this effort, such as the building and proper utilization of stronger scientific research capabilities and facilities in the Nation's universities, the widespread very advanced industrial capability which is being developed, the widest possible utilization of those technological developments which can improve either the capability or the efficiency of industry, and the governmental framework required to manage this greatest and most challenging enterprise in this history of mankind.

And, beyond this, one must consider the residual value to the Nation in the experienced and trained labor force stemming from this great industrial effort; the increased value of our educational plant and organization, including both faculty and graduate students, resulting from the extensive research and training conducted for NASA in the universities; the value of such operating systems as communications and weather satellites; and the value to our military services and to national security in the basic structure which is being built to provide space power. And based on all of this is the image of a "can do" nation that creates its prestige among the nations by demonstrating, openly, on the television screens of all the world, its capacity to take measurements of Venus, or launch the largest weight ever put in orbit by man, or link the peoples of the world with TELSTAR, RELAY, and SYNCOM, or launch and recover six astronauts, or provide all nations with satellite weather data from our spacecraft as they pass overhead.

While this review has touched only the highlights of the Nation's accomplishments in space, it is evident that very real progress has been made and that substantial benefits have already accrued from the investment which the Nation has made in this new field of activity. The material which follows describes the specific technical endeavors now underway or proposed in the United States continuing drive toward preeminence in space.