108 HISTORY OF THE COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 



On February 20, 1962, Glenn completed his flight, and returned 

 to the cheers of millions throughout the country. Just one week later, 

 Glenn, Grissom, and Shepard made a dramatic appearance on behalf 

 of the $37 billion NASA authorization bill as hearings were kicked 

 off before the Science and Astronautics Committee. 



Hoarsely, Administrator Webb rasped: 



I regret th.it my voice is not very good today. In common with many of our 

 fellow citizens, I think 1 have almost worn it out cheering for Colonel Glenn and the 

 tremendous achievements which the Mercury team has performed. 



When Chairman Miller commended Webb for his "push and drive," 

 Webb responded: "The atmosphere here is a little bit different than 

 the day I appeared before you after the first Russian flight." 



THE COMMITTEE AND NOVA 



Weightlifting was the name of the game in the early days of the 

 space program. It was a simple proposition understood by everv 

 schoolboy that Russia had a big lead because she had bigger boosters. 

 To get to the Moon obviously required far bigger launch vehicles 

 than we possessed. For the two-man Gemini missions, the Air Force 

 Titan was used, while NASA was developing the Saturn for the 

 three-man Apollo mission. At the same time, the gigantic Nova was 

 designed for direct ascent to the Moon and return. 



By early 1962, a clear-cut decision had not yet been reached on 

 whether the manned lunar trip would be by direct ascent, by Earth 

 orbit rendezvous or lunar orbit rendezvous. Nova was the alternative 

 if direct ascent were the way to go. Nova was also projected as the 

 big truck which would carry flights to the planets and perform deep 

 space probes. 



The Nova program was so massive as to defy the imagination. 

 The idea was to cluster eight engines in the first stage with a thrust of 

 1.5 million pounds apiece for a 12 million pound thrust. Other versions 

 increased the thrust up to 20 million pounds. The launch and test 

 facilities required construction costs which ran into hundreds of 

 millions of dollars. 



The committee was appalled at the size and fuzziness of the 

 justifications for the huge Nova expenditures, which in the fiscal 

 year 1963 totaled $163 million for research and development, some- 

 thing over $60 million downpayment on launch facilities at Cape 

 Canaveral, and over $12 million for test facilities in Mississippi. 



Teague had his doubts about Nova from the start. On February 28, 

 1962, he asked Dr. Seamans: "How much would you lose if you cut 

 down the Nova program to just surveying and engineer studies, but 



