NOMINATION OF DR. JAMES C. FLETCHER TO BE ADMINISTRATOR OF NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION WEDNESDAY, MARCH 10, 1971 U.S. SENATE, COMMITTEE ON AERONAUTICAL AND SPACE SCIENCES, Washington, D.C. The committee met, pursuant to call, at 2:35 p.m., in room 235, Old Senate Office Building, Senator Clinton P. Anderson (chairman) presiding. Present: Senators Anderson (presiding), Stennis, Cannon, Gambrell, Curtis, Smith, Goldwater, and Weicker. Also present: James J. Gehrig, staff director; Everard H. Smith, Jr., Dr. Glen P. Wilson, Craig Voorhees, and William Parker, professional staff members; Sam Bouchard, assistant chief clerk; Mary Rita Robbins, clerical assistant, and Frank Di Luzio, special assistant to Senator Anderson. OPENING STATEMENT BY THE CHAIRMAN The CHAIRMAN. The hearing will come to order, please. This hearing has been called to take testimony on the nomination by the President of Dr. James C. Fletcher to the position of Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The position of Administrator of NASA has been vacant since the resignation of Dr. Thomas O. Paine on September 15, 1970. Since that time Dr. George M. Low, Deputy Administrator of NASA, has been serving as the Acting Administrator. Dr. Fletcher's nomination has been referred to this committee for its recommendation. Without objection I will place in the record at this point Dr. Fletcher's biographical sketch. (The biographical data referred to follows:) BIOGRAPHY OF JAMES CHIPMAN FLETCHER Born: Milburn, New Jersey, June 5, 1919. Parents: Harvey and Lorena (Chipman) Fletcher. Married: Fay Lee, November 2, 1946. Children: Virginia, Mary Susan, James Stephen, Barbara Jo. Flushing High School, Flushing, N.Y., 1933–36. Bayside High School, Bayside, N.J., 1936-37, diploma. Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, 1937-39. Columbia University, New York, N.Y., 1939-40, B.A. California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif., 1945-48, Ph.D. Honors: Alumni Distinguished Service Award California Institute of Technology, October 25, 1966. Citations: U.S. Air Force Scientific Science Board, July 26, 1967. Patents. Holds patents on: Missile Guidance System; Sonar Scanning System; Absolute Manometer; Electronically Stabilized Satellite; Biological Detection System; and several others Publications: Ph.D. Thesis-"Energy Distribution of Knock-on Electrons from Graphite Released by Primary Mesons.” Classified papers on Underwater Sound. Transducer Calibrations, Shock Tubes, Explosive Yields in Standard Soil, etc. Navy technical reports, technical memoranda. Classified papers on Radar Scattering, Ground Clutter, and Missile Guidance Analysis. Chapter in Guided Missile Engineering (Wiley-1957). Chapter in U.S. Air Force publication on "Automatic Control," 1955. Physical Review, 1949, "Meson Disintegration." Journal of Applied Physics, 1959, "Reliability Test Program" Positions Held: President, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, July 1964. Chairman of the Board, Space-General Corp., El Monte, Calif., November 1962-June 1964. Vice President, Systems, Aerojet-General Corp., Azusa, Calif., November 1962-June 1964. President (organizer), Space-General Corp., El Monte, Calif., July 1961November 1962. President (organizer), Space Electronics Corp., El Monte, Calif., July 1958July 1961. Associate Director, Guided Missile Laboratory, Director of Guided Missile Electronics Research Division, Director, Space Technology Laboratories, Ramo-Wooldridge Corp., Los Angeles, Calif., March 1954-June 1958. Director, Theory and Analysis Laboratory, Hughes Aircraft Co., Los Angeles, Calif. July 1948-March 1954. Teaching Fellow in Physics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif., October 1945-July 1948. Instructor in Physics, Princeton University, Princeton, N.J., July 1942October 1945. Special Research Associate, Cruft Laboratory, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., July 1941-July 1942. Research Physicist, U.S. Navy Bureau of Ordnance, Washington, D.C., August 1940-July 1941. CURRENT AFFILIATIONS U.S. Government Member: President's Science Advisory Committee. Naval Warfare Panel of President's Science Advisory Committee (Chairman). Board of Visitors, National Bureau of Standards. Member: Sigma Xi. American Physical Society. Learned societies American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (Associate Fellow). Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers. American Association for the Advancement of Science. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (Fellow). Phi Kappa Phi. Tau Beta Pi, Utah Alpha Chapter (Alumnus).. National Academy of Engineering (Elected). Member: Education National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges. Board of Directors, Associated Western Universities, Inc. Research and Graduate Education Subcommittee, Coordinating Council of Higher Education. Utah Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. Utah Conference on Higher Education. International Association of University Presidents. Medical Advisory Board of College of Medicine, University of Utah, Utah State Medical Association. Regional Advisory Committee, Institute of International Education. CURRENT AFFILIATIONS Miscellaneous Member: Executive Committee, Pro-Utah. Board of Directors, Utah Symphony Orchestra. Great Salt Lake Council, Boy Scouts of America (Sustaining). Board of Trustees, Aerospace Education Foundation (affiliate of the Air Force Association). Board of Trustees, Park City Institute of the Arts and Sciences. Member: Alta Club. Aztec Club. Clubs Fort Douglas-Hidden Valley Country Club. Fort Douglas Officers' Open Mess. Salt Lake Rotary Club. Timpanogos Club of Utah. University Club. Cosmos Club. Member: Affiliations now terminated National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics Subcommittee on Stability and Control. Department of Defense Command, Control and Intelligence Committee. Woods Hole Summer Study Group on Arms Control. Physics Panel, National Institutes of Health Review (Chairman). Committee Assistant Secretary of the United States Air Force (Consultant). Minuteman Flexibility and Safety Study Group (Chairman). U.S. Air Force Project FORECAST Communications Panel (Chairman). Department of Defense Ad Hoc Group for Advanced Air-to-Surface Missiles. Office of the Director of Defense Research and Engineering (Consultant). Committee on Economic Impact of Defense and Disarmament, Office of the Secretary of Defense (Consultant). Arms Control and Disarmament Agency U.S. Department of State (Consultant). World Veterans Federation (Consultant). Strategic Weapons Panel, President's Science Advisory Council. Board of Editors, Addison-Wesley Publishing Co. Board of Directors, Pacific Automation Products, Inc. Science Advisory Committee, President's National Crime Commission. Executive Committee and Electronics Panel, U.S. Air Force Scientific Advisory Board. Division Advisory Group, Space Systems Division, USAF Scientific Advisory Board, Department of the Air Force (Chairman). Military Aircraft Panel, President's Science Advisory Committee. Commission on Administrative Affairs, American Council of Education. The CHAIRMAN. Before proceeding with your statement, Dr. Fletcher, we have with us this afternoon the Senators from the State of Utah, Senator Wallace Bennett and Senator Frank Moss, both of whom I understand would like to make a statement. Senators, we are glad to have you here. We appreciate your coming. Please proceed. STATEMENT OF THE HON. WALLACE F. BENNETT, A U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF UTAH Senator BENNETT. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I am delighted to come before the committee today with my colleague from Utah, Senator Moss, to present and introduce to you one of our State's outstanding citizens who has been nominated by President Nixon to become administrator of NASA. In Utah the announcement of Dr. Fletcher's nomination has been met with mixed emotions. Utahans are elated at the President's excellent choice and also a bit sorry to hear that President Fletcher will be leaving the University of Utah for his new duties in Washington. While at the university for 7 years as its president, Dr. Fletcher compiled an outstanding record both as an administrator and as an educator, and his talents will be hard to replace. In those 7 years the university experienced dramatic growth both in its physical plant and in its range of academic services to students and to the community. Dr. Fletcher's talented hand was involved in all aspects of this progress and we shall miss him greatly out in Utah. I have personally known Dr. Fletcher for 25 years. The first Dr. Fletcher that I knew was the distinguished father of our nominee, Dr. Harvey Fletcher, Utah's first "scientific great" and currently professor emeritus of physics at Brigham Young University. The elder Dr. Fletcher is recognized around the world as the "father" of modern stereophonic sound systems. And while on the subject of this Dr. Fletcher's family and relatives, I would like, proudly, to list quickly for the committee the names and titles of Dr. Fletcher's four brothers. First there is Stephen H. Fletcher, vice president and general counsel of Western Electric in New York; then there is Dr. Robert Fletcher, executive director at Bell Laboratories in New Jersey-and I might add a personal note here: Dr. Robert Fletcher also happens to be my son-in-law; then there is Dr. Harvey J. Fletcher, professor of mathematics at Brigham Young University; and finally there is Dr. Paul C. Fletcher, department chief of the Naval Electronics Laboratories Center in San Diego. Mr. Chairman, that's four Ph.D's and one lawyer. In addition, the mother of this outstanding group of men, the late Mrs. Harvey Fletcher, was named National Mother of the Year in 1965. Mr. Chairman, aside from Jim Fletcher's outstanding family tree, he will bring to NASA an impressive record in the aerospace industry, |