337 



Committee on Science and Astronautics. In the Senate, the Special 

 Committee on Space and Astronautics was created on February 6, 

 1958, followed on January 14, 1959, by establishment of the Committee 

 on Aeronautical and Space Sciences. The National Aeronautics and 

 Space Administration was established by passage of the National 

 Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958, simultaneously creating the Na- 

 tional Aeronautics and Space Council. Appropriations were passed 

 funding both these and other space groups and activities. These 

 moves effectively ushered both the legislative and executive branches 

 of the Federal Government into the space age. 



FEDERAL SCIENCE ADVISORY STRUCTURE 



The launching of Sputnik I during the IGY resulted in radical 

 changes in the Federal science advisory structure. Most important 

 were the appointment of a Science Adviser to the President and the 

 location of the President's Science Advisory Committee directly 

 within the White House. 134 The latter step, according to Berkner, 

 "has profoundly influenced all that has followed, for the needs of 

 science, scientific research, and science education can now be under- 

 stood and discussed at top governmental levels. Scientists finally 

 have a definitive access to Government." 135 This much-expanded 

 science advisory apparatus within the Executive Office in turn led to 

 "the designation of a number of Assistant Secretaries for Science and 

 Technology (or equivalent) in old-line departments." 136 This struc- 

 ture continued largely intact until it was dismantled by Reorganiza- 

 tion Plan No. 1 of 1973. 137 



Additional effects were felt within the State Department, which in 

 1950 had created an Office of the Science Adviser and had appointed 

 scientific attaches to several embassies in Western European countries. 

 The Departments Science Office, which had been drastically curtailed 

 in 1955, was revived and strengthened following Sputnik I. Science 

 attaches, appointed to serve at U.S. embassies in London, Paris, 

 Rome, Bonn, Stockholm, and Tokyo, were the first to serve under 

 Wallace R. Brode, newly appointed as Science Adviser to the Secre- 

 tary, and constituted the first of a series of such appointments follow- 

 ing Sputnik I. Additional appointments to embassies in the U.S.S.R., 

 India, and South American countries soon followed. The primary 

 duties of the science attache, according to the State Department, was 



. . .to serve as an adviser to the Ambassador and his staff in the evaluation 

 of the interaction of science with foreign policy, the assessment of current scien- 

 tific progress abroad, and the enhancement of the liaison between United States 

 and foreign scientists and engineers. 138 



The fact that 24 countries had scientific attaches attached to their 

 embassies in Washington attested to "the need and usefulness for 

 representation of science in international affairs." 138 Transferred to 

 the Office of the Science Adviser in May 1962 were several nonmilitarv 

 functions o f the Space Affairs Section of the Office of the Special 



«« These moves are discussed in detail by Atwood, "The IGY in Retrospect," p. 689, and in NSF-NAS 

 Hearings: IOY Report, p. 191. 



1M Testimony of Berkner in NSF-NAS Hearings: IOY Report, p. 191. 



'*> Toivard a New Diplomacy. See vol. I, p. 12. 



«w Reproduced in: U.S. Congress, House, Committee on Government Operations, Reorganization Plan 

 No. 1 of 197$, Hearing, 93d Cong., 1st sess., Feb. 26, 1973, pp. 97-104. 



'» Department of State Bulletin 39 (Dec. 29, 1959), pp. 1048-1049. 



»»• Department of State Bulletin 39 (Dec. 29, 1959), p. 1049. 



