]-^ HISTORY OF THE COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 



Larry O'Brien and I have talked wich the President about your letter of September 

 27th, and the President asked me to send you an interim answer to the important 

 question which you raise. 



The relation between national security and the space program is very clear and 

 important in the President's |udgment, and he is currently engaged in a major review 

 of the relative roles of different agencies, precisely with the programs for next year 

 in mind. I think, therefore, that we can assure you that there will be new expressions 

 of the administration's point of view in good time ior your subcommittee authori- 

 zation hearings injanuary. 



In the midst of all this furor, NASA's appropriation bill came 

 before the House. The atmosphere was ripe for a $250 million cut 

 below the figure authorized, and when the appropriation process was 

 completed NASA wound up with $5.1 billion; $500 million short of 

 its budget request. Also added was a provision that no funds could be 

 used for "expenses of participating in a manned lunar landing to be 

 carried out by the United States and any other country without con- 

 sent of Congress." 



President Kennedy never did get around to answering Teague's 

 letter directly. But he was obviously stung by the charge that he had 

 abandoned the lunar landing goal. Perhaps this is why, in San Antonio, 

 Tex., on November 21, 1963, the day before he was assassinated in 

 Dallas, he reaffirmed his commitment in these words: 



Frank O'Connor, the Irish writer, tells in one of his books how, as a boy, he 

 and his friends would make their way across the countryside; and when they came to 

 an orchard wall that seemed too high to climb, too doubtful to try, too difficult to 

 petmit their journey to continue, they took off their caps and tossed them over the 

 wall and then they had no choice but to follow them. 



My friends, this Nation has tossed its cap over the wall of space and we have no 

 choice but to follow it. Whatever the difficulties, they must be overcome. 



VISITOR CENTER AT THE CAPE 



When Cape Canaveral began functioning as a launch center in the 

 1950's the Atlantic Missile Range was controlled by the Air Force. 

 For reasons of security and safety, the Cape was usually under wraps 

 and even the working press had difficulty in covering activities and 

 launches, many of which were classified. In addition to bringing many 

 Members of Congress to the Cape to educate them through the excite- 

 ment of seeing actual launches and a chance to get a firsthand feel of 

 the complexities of the program, Teague brought many other visitors 

 on numerous occasions. With some maneuvering, it was usually pos- 

 sible to invite a very limited number of guests to view launches at the 

 cramped facilities available. But for millions of Americans whose tax 

 dollars were supporting the space program, it was either a case of 

 sleeping on the nearby beaches or watching television — -which could 

 never quite convey the precise size of the monster boosters which pro- 

 gressed in size from Redstone, Atlas, lit. in to Saturn. 



