Mr. CONERLY. It takes special equipment with aircraft because the 148 frequency is outside the normal band we use in these aircraft. Mr. DAHLIN. It is the one you are planning to use?

Mr. CONERLY. For ATS-B for test purposes.

Mr. DAHLIN. That is what I asked you. That is not the same one as this proposal.

Mr. CONERLY. No; we would come down wholly within the VHF band we have authorized for air-ground communications.

Colonel MAY. The transponder experiments on ATS-B is only a tiny part of the overall ATS-B objectives, in fact it is a very small part.

Mr. Conerly's organization has come up with a complete test plan on the ATS-B which might be of interest to you, it gives frequencies, details, times, and I would say everything that you need to know on the ATS-B. It is just an experiment and there is no intent to convert it to operational use like Syncom II or III.

Mr. ROBACK. Have you finished your representation?

Colonel MAY. Yes, sir; I have.

Mr. HOLIFIELD. Thank you, gentlemen, for your testimony. This has been very interesting.

Mr. LEAGUE. Thank you, sir.

Mr. HOLIFIELD. We will excuse you at this time.
Our next hearing will be next Tuesday at 10 a.m.
The committee is adjourned.

(Whereupon, at 12:05 p.m., the subcommittee recessed, to reconvene at 10 a.m., Tuesday, September 6, 1966.)

GOVERNMENT USE OF SATELLITE COMMUNICATIONS

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 1966

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

SUBCOMMITTEE ON MILITARY OPERATIONS

OF THE COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS,

Washington, D.C.

The subcommittee met, pursuant to recess, at 10 a.m., in room 2247, Rayburn Office Building, Hon. Chet Holifield (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding.

Present: Representative Holifield.

Also present: Herbert Roback, staff administrator; Douglas G. Dahlin, counsel; Paul Ridgely, investigator; Joseph Luman, defense analyst; and J. P. Carlson, minority staff.

Mr. HOLIFIELD. The committee will be in order.

We will continue our hearings on Government use of satellite communications.

Our first witness is Walter D. Sohier, General Counsel for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

(The biographical sketch of Mr. Sohier follows:)

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF WALTER D. SOHIER, GENERAL COUNSEL, NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION

Born in Boston, Mass., in 1924.

Served with the field artillery of the Army for 31⁄2 years during World War II. Graduated from Harvard College in 1948 with honors in American government. Worked briefly for the National Planning Association. Graduated from Columbia Law School in 1951, where also served as staff assistant for the Legislative Drafting Research Fund of Columbia University. At Columbia, was a Stone scholar.

From 1951 to 1952, was employed by Central Intelligence Agency. Transferred in 1952 to the Office of General Counsel, Department of the Air Force, and worked primarily on legal matters in the procurement and civil aviation areas. In 1955, transferred to the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force (Materiel) where served for 2 years as Assistant to the Deputy for Procurement and Production. Returned to Air Force General Counsel's office for 2 years, working primarily in areas of civil aviation and international matters such as foreign base rights negotiations.

Joined National Aeronautics and Space Administration in November 1958 as Assistant General Counsel, working primarily on procurement matters. Became Deputy General Counsel of NASA in 1961, and General Counsel in 1963. Mr. HOLIFIELD. Mr. Sohier, you may proceed.

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STATEMENT OF WALTER D. SOHIER, GENERAL COUNSEL, NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION; ACCOMPANIED BY EDMOND C. BUCKLEY, ASSOCIATE ADMINISTRATOR FOR TRACKING AND DATA ACQUISITION

Mr. SOHIER. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, we are happy to be here this morning to provide the committee with the information requested in the chairman's letter of August 11, 1966, to James E. Webb, Administrator of NASA. Accompanying me as witnesses are Edmond C. Buckley, Associate Administrator of NASA for Tracking and Data Acquisition; and Leonard Jaffe, Director of Space Applications Programs in NASA's Office or Space Science and Applications. My own appearance before the committee results from the special responsibilities assigned to me by Mr. Webb and Dr. Seamans, the Deputy Administrator, to provide agency coordination in the area of satellite communications.

I will attempt in my statement to bring the committee up to date on the arrangements NASA has undertaken to procure satellite communications services for NCS/NASCOM, which is the operational NASA Communications Network, primarily in support of the Apollo program. I will then ask Mr. Jaffe to give the committee a report on advanced technical programs and studies in the field of satellite communications.

You will recall, Mr. Chairman, that Dr. Seamans, Mr. Buckley, and other NASA witnesses appeared before this committee last January and that quite extensive testimony was given on the status of NASA's plans for satellite communications services for the NCS/NASCOM network. Appendix 1 of the printed committee hearings contains the key correspondence between NASA and DOD relating to the provision of these services, culminating in Secretary McNamara's letter of October 5, 1965, authorizing NASA, as representative of the Executive Agent for the National Communications System (NCS), to proceed immediately to conduct negotiations with the Communications Satellite Corp. (Comsat) on the basis of the Comsat proposal to use the HS 303-A satellite (since designated as Intelsat II). In his reply of October 8, Mr. Webb confirmed that, based upon the work of a joint NASA/ DOD group as well as upon NASA's own review of possible alternative approaches, the Comsat proposal provided a satisfactory basis for proceeding with negotiations in the view of NASA. Thus, when NASA witnesses last appeared before this committee to testify on this subject, negotiations with Comsat were being conducted at the same time.

NASA has now completed these negotiations. The agreement covering the furnishing of communications services by Comsat was entered into as of July 5, 1966. The corollary launch services agreement, under which NASA will launch the Intelsat II satellites for Comsat, was entered into as of July 22, 1966. The separate negotiations that have been conducted with the Australian, British, and Spanish communications entities, which will provide communications services between the satellites and the NASA tracking and data acquisition stations at Carnarvon, Australia, on Ascension Island, and on Grand Canary Island, respectively, are also virtually completed.

Now that NASA has completed its agreements with Comsat, it might be helpful to the committee if I very briefly summarized the salient features of these two agreements, and also commented on the current situation regarding the negotiations with foreign communications entities.

The Communications Services Agreement provides that Comsat will furnish satellite communications services necessary for communication with six stations, of which three are foreign earth stations and three are U.S. instrumentation ships. The earth stations are located at Carnarvon, Australia; Ascension Island; Grand Canary Island; the three instrumentation ships will be located as follows: one in the Atlantic, one in the Pacific, and one in the Indian Ocean. In order to make this service available, Comsat will place two satellites in synchronous orbit, one to cover the Atlantic and near Indian Ocean area, and the other to cover the Pacific, including Australia. Simultaneous access will be provided to any two of the four stations served by the Atlantic satellite, and to the two stations served by the Pacific satellite. Comsat will furnish communications satellite capacity necessary to provide six voice/data and two teletype circuits to and from each of the ships and six voice/data and two teletype circuits to each of the foreign earth stations. The service will be for continuous use; but the maximum use by NCS/NASCOM of each satellite will not exceed 12 voice/ data and 4 teletype circuits at any instant. Viewed in terms of satellite power requirements to provide this service, approximately 33 percent of the total capacity of the Pacific satellite and 54 percent of the Atlantic satellite will be required on the average.

Comsat will also furnish the operational management of the space segment and will serve as the primary point of coordination for the

earth station services.

The agreement sets forth the rates and charges which will be incorporated in a tariff to be filed by Comsat with the Federal Communications Commission. During the negotiations, the proposed rates and charges were discussed with Comsat and analyzed by NASA in considerable detail. However, the actual rates to be charged for the communications services will be those ultimately established by the FCC under its normal ratemaking procedures.

The proposed rates and charges to be filed with the FCC by Comsat amount to $8,958,000 per year, or $26,874,000 over the 3-year period of service called for under the agreement. The services were originally planned to begin as soon as practicable after September 1, 1966, but not later than September 30, 1966, and to continue through September 30, 1969. However, there has been a change in the date the services will begin, because Comsat will not be ready to have the first Intelsat II satellite launched until late next month.

NASA's responsibilities, in addition to making the necessary contractual arrangements for the services to be furnished by the overseas carriers, and agreeing to pay for the services furnished by Comsat, include the installation and operation of the shipborne earth stations at no cost to Comsat.

During the life of the communications services agreement, NASA has the right to order a reduction of or an increase in the services being furnished by Comsat in either the Atlantic Ocean area or the