SPACE SCIENCE, APPLICATIONS, AND ADVANCED RESEARCH, 1963-69 257 



Despite the fact that he had previously spoken out in favor of Nerva, 

 his recommit motion slashed the nuclear rocket program by some $24 

 million. 



Senator Anderson, that perennial friend of nuclear development, 

 helped the conference committee to restore the full amount of Nerva 

 in 1967. But the Appropriations Subcommittee hit the program on the 

 blind side and forced NASA to scale down its Nerva program from a 

 nuclear rocket with 200,000 pounds thrust to one with only 75,000 

 pounds thrust. 



The same cast of characters marched out to do battle in 1968. This 

 time the Hechler subcommittee, supported by the full committee and 

 the House, refused to fund Nerva, but once again Senator Anderson 

 and his power in the conference committee prevailed. Pelly and Rums- 

 feld joined the opponents of Nerva. The House and Senate Appropria- 

 tions Committees, while cutting NASA's total budget, expressed the 

 opinion that there was enough flexibility for NASA to go ahead with 

 the smaller Nerva rocket motor if they really wanted to. 



The House had a strange reversal of feeling as the decade drew to 

 a close. In 1969, NASA asked for $36.5 million for nuclear rockets, and 

 this time the House voted $13.5 million more than was requested in 

 order to speed up Nerva. It was argued that Nerva would be cheaper 

 for post-Apollo missions. On the committee, Wydler opposed the 

 $13-5 million increase, but muted his objections to the amount NASA 

 requested. Representative Edward I. Koch (Democrat of New York), 

 later to become mayor of New York, was the only committee member 

 to make an all-out fight against Nerva in 1969. 



In 1971, the House and Senate Appropriations Committees finally 

 killed Nerva, by denying further funds. And when Senator Anderson 

 retired from the Senate in 1972, Nerva lost its last big clout on Capitol 

 Hill. 



UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS 



As noted in chapter I, the Select Committee on Astronautics and 

 Space Exploration had conducted a subcommittee hearing on uniden- 

 tified flying objects. No conclusions were reached, and testimony was 

 confined to an Air Force presentation on material assembled on sight- 

 ings, plus explanations of phenomena where available. 



The successive chairmen of the Science and Astronautics and 

 Science and Technology committees were all reluctant to authorize full- 

 blown inquiries into unidentified flying objects, on the grounds that the 

 jurisdiction of the committee did not warrant coverage of the issue. Per- 

 haps the real reason for the reluctance of the committee to grapple 

 directly with the subject was the feeling that this was a "hot potato" 



