1553 



CONGRESSIONAL RESPONSES 



There were corresponding responses in Congress. A House Select 

 Committee on Astronautics and Space Exploration was created on 

 March 5, 1958, and replaced on July 21 of the same year by the 

 Committee on Science and Astronautics (now styled the Committtee 

 on Science and TechnologjO- In the Senate a Special Committee on 

 Space and Astronautics was created on February 6, 1958, and was super- 

 seded on January 14, 1959, by the Committee on Aeronautical and 

 Space Sciences. Appropriations were passed funding NASA and the 

 National Aeronautics and Space Council, which had also been estab- 

 lished by passage of the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958. 



OTHER DOMESTIC AND GENERAL EFFECTS OF IGY 



Still other important effects are attributable to the IGY and 

 Sputnik I: 



— In the words of Walter Sullivan, a perceptive observer of the 

 IGY as it progressed, they "precipitated an examination of the 

 educational system and in fact, of the entire American scale of 

 values." ^' Parents, school boards, and legislators became more 

 aware of the importance of science training for the Nation's 

 youth; curricula were revised, and mathematics and science 

 courses which had been dropped reappeared; efforts were made to 

 bring textbooks and teaching methods up to date: the National 

 Defense Education Act of 1958 was passed, making substantial 

 Federal appropriations available for these and related purposes. 



— Sputnik 1 and its attendant publicity convinced Americans 

 that they no longer possessed an undisputed lead over the rest of 

 the world in science and technology. The universal concern which 

 followed this jolt to American complacency helped focus public 

 attitudes upon the necessity for basic research. 



— 'An important outcome of the IGY earth satellite program 

 was the development, under U.S. leadership, of international com- 

 munications satellites. Less than two decades later, worldwide 

 television broadcasts as events take place, from tennis matches 

 and the Olympics to actual combat or meetings of heads of state, 

 are taken for granted. The increasing interdependence of peoples 

 around the world is accented by the growing network of facilities 

 for instant TV, as well as radio, communications between distant 

 points. 



— 'Apart from their obvious advantages in arms inspections and 

 military operations, satellites are proving to have many surveil- 

 lance uses. A NASA stud}^ in 1967 listed these, among others: 

 flood warnings; tracking of migrating birds, fish, and animals; 

 iceberg reconnaissance; mapping of land areas and ocean bottoms; 

 earthquake prediction; air pollution monitoring and forecasting; 

 weather forecasting; and earth resources surve^^s (agricultural 

 and mineral).^* 



— Good progress has been made in the use of satellites for 

 weather forecasting. Of increasingl}' significant potential is their 



<' Ibid. p. 338. 



^'Iluddlo, The Kiolution of International Tcchnologu, vol. II, pp. 637-638. 



