ization request begin-to present and discuss with you the main fea- Also accompanying me this morning are Capt. Charles Conrad, Jr., commander of the first Skylab crew, and Brig. Gen. Thomas P. Stafford, who was recently named commander of the U.S. crew for the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project. In response to your invitation, Mr. Chairman, these gentlemen are prepared to discuss later this morning the plans and objectives of their respective programs. In their presentations they will use the models and hardware we have brought to the hearing room. THE NASA FISCAL YEAR 1974 BUDGET As shown in table 1 appended to my statement, the fiscal year 1974 budget estimates for NASA are based upon a total budget plan of $3.107 billion, as earlier mentioned by the chairman. Our fiscal year 1974 authorization and appropriation requests total somewhat less$3.016 billion-since $91 million of fiscal year 1973 funds will be applied to the fiscal year 1974 program. These fiscal year 1973 funds are available for use in fiscal year 1974 because of expenditure reductions necessary in fiscal year 1973 to meet Government-wide expenditure limitations, as indicated in the statement we sent to the committee on January 5, 1973. As a result of these reductions, our authorization request is down about $400 million from last year. [See table, p. 2446.] This budget for NASA, like those of other agencies, has been reduced substantially below previous plans and expectations in order to hold total Government spending to the targets set by the President. At the same time, the budget will permit NASA to carry forward a balanced, productive, and significant program in space and aeronautics, one which will build upon the progress and achievements of the past. The year 1972 was one marked by significant developments for NASA. It was a year of impressive achievements in aeronautics and space. And it was a year of great decision in which President Nixon proposed and the Congress agreed to proceed with the development of the reusable Space Shuttle. During 1972, in my view, we completed the transition from the programs of the 1960's to the new programs and challenges of the 1970's. In this transition we have shifted our emphasis from manned space exploration-typified by Apollo-to space activities focused on direct practical down-to-earth benefits, to exploration using unmanned spacecraft, and to the development of the Space Shuttle as the means to make more practical and more economical all future uses of space, unmanned and manned, especially for applications for economic, commercial, international, or national security significance. ACHIEVEMENTS IN 1972 In many ways, the year 1972 was one of the most successful in NASA's history. It was the first year in which all of NASA's launches and missions were successful. Although we cannot always expect such an outstanding record, it gives us some confidence in being able to proceed with a relatively full program in fiscal year 1974, even with a tightly constrained budget. In our program of lunar exploration, on the basis of preliminary results, it appears that Apollo 17 was by far the most productive of our lunar exploration missions. We believe that this mission will be remembered not so much as the last of the six Apollo lunar landing missions, but rather as the most scientifically rewarding. The first detailed scientific reports will be presented at a lunar science conference to be held in Houston next week. The excellent data we received from the Mariner 9 spacecraft as it orbited Mars changed radically our thinking about our closest neighbor in space. The data show the planet to be a geologically active one with volcanic mountains higher than any mountain on earth and with equatorial crevasses three to four times deeper than the Grand Canyon. The first Earth Resources Technology Satellite (ERTS-1), launched on July 23, 1972, continues to provide impressive data on the Earth's environment and its resources. It is no overstatement, in my view, to characterize this satellite as laying the groundwork for a global inventory of natural resources, or to predict that the technology and interpretative systems we are developing in cooperation with the other agencies will ultimately lead to a worldwide environmental and pollution monitoring network. Our Copernicus satellite (OAO-3) has set new standards of pointing accuracy and has opened new channels of information about the far reaches of the universe. The Nimbus 5 satellite launched in December demonstrated new and extremely valuable techniques of getting nighttime as well as daytime temperature readings through clouds at all levels in the atmosphere. This new capability, when put to use in operational systems, will greatly increase man's ability to understand and forecast the weather. In the area of international cooperation, the past year was marked by two historic developments: the agreement signed in Moscow on May 24, 1972, by President Nixon and Chairman Kosygin on cooperation in the peaceful uses of outer space: and the decision of the European Space Research Organization (ESRO) to develop at their expense a "sortie laboratory" to fly with the Space Shuttle in the 1980's. Under the agreement with the U.S.S.R.. we will conduct in 1975 the ApolloSoyuz Test Project in which a U.S. Apollo spacecraft and a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft will rendezvous and dock in earth orbit. As I have noted, General Stafford will discuss that mission in some detail later this morning. Also, I understand that as a part of these hearings, you will hear from Prof. Maurice Levy, Chairman of the ESRO Council, concerning the plans for the development of the Sortie Laboratory or "Spacelab," as the Europeans call it. These, then, were some of the highlights of NASA activities during the past year. The committee may wish to include in the record of these hearings the more comprehensive statement on our 1972 achievements which we have provided to the committee. The CHAIRMAN. They will be included in the record. [The document referred to follows:] National Aeronautics and Space Administration HIGHLIGHTS OF 1972 ACTIVITIES MANNED SPACEFLIGHT Early in January, President Nixon recommended, and the Congress approved, proceeding with the development of the Space Shuttle--a reusable manned space vehicle which will be used for a wide variety of space missions in earth orbit. The Space Shuttle will be launched as a rocket and landed as an airplane. The Shuttle will operate from Kennedy Space Center in Florida and Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. North American Rockwell Corporations' Space Division, Downey California, was selected as the prime contractor. With the return to earth of Apollo 17 on December 19, the United States completed the last, longest, and most successful of seven manned lunar landings. Apollo 17 records included: --Longest manned lunar landing flight; 301 hours, 51 minutes. --Largest lunar sample return: An estimated 115 kilograms (249 pounds). -Longest time in lunar orbit; 147 hours, 48 minutes. Apollo 17 was launched at 12:33 a.m. December 7. It was manned by Eugene A. Cernan, Commander; Ronald E. Evans, Command Module Pilot; and Harrison H. Schmitt, Lunar Module Pilot. The fifth manned lunar landing, Apollo 16, took place April 19. After liftoff from Cape Kennedy April 16, John Young, Commander, and Charles Duke, Lunar Module Pilot, spent nearly three days exploring the Descartes highlands region of the moon while Ken Mattingly, Command Module Pilot, orbited the moon operating a complex array of scientific instruments and two lunar mapping cameras. Apollo 16 splashed down in the Pacific Ocean April 27. During his visit to Russia in May, President Nixon signed an agreement with Chairman Kosygin of the USSR to conduct an earth orbital rendezvous and docking of a U.S. spacecraft with a Russian spacecraft. In July 1975, a U.S. Apollo spacecraft will link up with a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft and while docked together, astronauts and cosmonauts will visit both spacecraft and perform a number of scientific tasks. A major purpose of the Apollo Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) is to develop a rescue capability by demonstrating systems that will permit the docking in orbit of any future manned spacecraft of either nation. For Skylab, the nation's first space station, 1972 was the year when it all began coming together. The three flight crews and two backup crews were named in January and promptly began an intensive year of training. The hardware elements-spacecraft components and equipment for conducting scientific, technical and biomedical investigations-were built and tested in many parts of the country and then shipped to Florida for final assembly and testing. Back-to-back 1973 launches, planned for May 14 and 15, will get Skylab started on an eight-month operational period during which the spacecraft cluster will be visited three times for a wide range of experiments in earth resources, solar astronomy, medical and other fields. The manned orbital research facility will have features that cannot be found on earth: zero-gravity; a broad view of the eath's surface features; a capability for exmining the sun and stars from outside the earth's dense and hampering atmosphere. SPACE SCIENCE Mariner 9 was put into orbit around Mars late in 1971. The windmill-shaped, solar-powered spacecraft circled the planet 698 times in 349 days and before being shut down on October 27, completely mapped the bleak Martian surface. As the spacecraft's TV cameras watched the seasons change below, its scientific instruments returned a wealth of data that has revised all previous concepts of Mars. Among Mariner 9's major observations were: A geologically active planet with volcanic mountains larger than any on earth; An equatorial crevasse three to four times deeper than the Grand Canyon; Indications that free-flowing water may have once existed on Mars; The evolution of a monumental dust storm that raged to an altitude of 50 to 60 kilometers (30 to 35 miles), cooling the surface and warming the atmosphere--a measurement of great value to scientists who have long been trying to calculate the effect of increasing pollution on earth's global climate. Mariner 9's findings laid the groundwork for America's next venture to Mars, the Viking expedition in 1975-76 which will search for evidence of life on the planet. Meantime, a new era in space exploration opened March 2 with the launch of Pioneer 10 toward Jupiter on man's first probe of the giant outer planets. Pioneer 10 is the first spacecraft to fly beyond the orbit of Mars, the first to penetrate the Asteroid Belt, the first intended to look closeup at Jupiter, a thousand times as big as earth, and the first destined to escape the solar system. As the year ended, Pioneer 10 has passed safely three-fourths of the way through the Asteroid Belt but still had a quarter of a billion miles to fly before training its camera on Jupiter's colorful bands and roving Great Red Spot in December of 1973. From that distance its radio signal will take 45 minutes to reach earth. The heaviest and most complex U.S. space observatory, named for the Polish astronomer Copernicus, was launched on August 21 and began studying ultraviolet and X-ray sources in the heavens with a clarity never before possible. So precise is the pointing accuracy that Copernicus could hold its telescope, the largest ever placed in space, on an object smaller than a basketball if seen at a distance of 650 kilometers (400 miles). Two other U.S. scientific satellites were launched during 1972: Explorer 47, designed to study earth-sun interactions from an orbit reaching half way to the moon; and Explorer 48, which surveyed the sky for gamma ray sources. Explorer 48, launched for NASA by an Italian crew from a platform in the Indian Ocean, was the 26th success in a row for the NASA Scout rocket, a new record for the U.S. space program. In addition, NASA launched four scientific satellites for, or in cooperation with, European organizations. Two dozen scientific spacecraft orbited in earlier years continued to return miles of tape-recorded data on the solar system and the universe beyond. Ten of them, plus far-off Pioneer 10, teamed up to observe great solar storms in August. giving early warning of the disruption and detecting the first evidence of nuclear reactions on the surface of the sun. APPLICATIONS On July 23 a major step was taken toward the establishment of a comprehensive information base about the earth's resources and its surface environment with the launch of the first Earth Resources Technology Satellite (ERTS-1). The 891-kilogram (1,965-pound) satellite was placed intot a 920-kilometer (570-mile) orbit by a Delta launch vehicle from Western Test Range (WTR), California, and began returning excellent pictures of the earth's surface July 25. The main purpose of this first mission is to demonstrate the usefulness of remote sensing of conditions on the earth's surface and environment on a global scale and on a reptitive basis. It is expected that data from ERTS-1 will contribute importantly to the fields of agriculture, forestry, geology, geography (land use management), hydrology, pollution control, oceanography, meteorology and ecology. Two weather satellites were launched on Delta rockets from WTR: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration-2 (NOAA-2) and NASA's Nimbus-5. NOAA-2 is an operational meteorological satellite launched by NASA October 15 for the NOA as part of that Agency's operational weather satellite system. Nimbus, launched December 11, is a research and development satellite carrying three new experiments along with three improved experiments similar to those carried in earlier satellites. One experiment involves, for the first time, taking vertical temperature measurements through the clouds down to the surface of the earth. Two commercial communications satellites in the INTELSAT IV series were launched January 22 and June 13 for the Communications Satellite Corporation aboard NASA's Atlas Centaur launch vehicle to become part of the global communications satellite network. In addition a small communications relay satellite, Oscar-6, was carried into orbit taboard the NOAA-2 launch vehicle for the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation. It is being used by ham radio operators around the world. And the rst in a new series of Canadian domestic communications satellites, TELESAT-A of "Anik" (Eskimo for brother), was launched by NASA on a Delta rocket. Both the Intelsats and the Canadian satellite were launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida. AERONAUTICAL RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY Major thrusts of NASA's aeronautical research and technology efforts were keyed to jet engine noise abatement and the reduction of airway and airport congestion. Significant progress has been achieved in programs to develop technology for a quiet jet engine, to develop designs for quieting U.S. commercial jetliners flying the nation's airways today, and to develop quieter aircraft takeoff and landing procedures. Programs for control of jet engine exhaust emissions have demonstrated techniques for achieving significant reductions in pollutants. Additional progress was achieved in composite materials research, avionics, aerodynamics (including the supercritical and antisymetrical wings), electronic flight control systems, general aviation safety, supersonic and hypersonic research, and in basic research in materials and structures. TECHNOLOGY UTILIZATION NASA continued to distribute information about benefits from aerospace technology to both the private and public sectors of the national economy at an ever-increasing rate during 1972. Noteworthy during the year was accelerated use in such fields as medicine, nondestructive testing, and engineering design. Many other fields and disciplines used NASA services in creating new commercial products, and improving others. A compact, fully automatic gas analyzer now on the commercial market offers prompt information on respiratory and metabolic functions. It can be used in hospital intensive care units and by anesthesiologists. Ultra-clean laminar air-flow techniques developed by NASA for assembling spacecraft are helping surgeons prevent infections in hospital operating rooms. The number of these special clean room surgeries has risen from less than 50 a year ago to nearly 200 today. Devices such as eye-operated switches have been used in a Huntsville, Alabama, hospital to test various applications of NASA-developed technology to aid quadriplegics. Immobile patients are able to do such things as open and close doors and windows, control room temperatures, change radio and TV stations, adjust the position of their beds, and signal the nurse. Nondestructive testing techniques developed by NASA are gaining widespread industrial use. A good example is a rapid-scan infrared tire tester being used daily by a major U.S. tire manufacturer. NASTRAN, a computer program designed by NASA to analyze the behavior of structures under stress, is now a design tool familiar to more than 600 American engineers outside the space agency. More than 70 industrial firms, universities, laboratories and Government agencies are using it to solve their structural engineering problems. For example, front suspension and steering linkages in a line of American cars and light trucks are now being designed with NASTRAN assistance. NASTRAN analysis can also be applied in the construction of bridges, power plants, skyscrapers, and airplanes. Increasingly items of fireproof or fire protective clothing and fire-retardant or fire-resistant building materials appeared on the commercial market, spurred by NASA research. NASA has developed several fire retardant or nonflammable foams, paints, fabrics, and glass fiber laminates. The International Association of Firefighters recently asked NASA to develop protective suits from new materials first developed for the space program. |