j 12 HISTORY OF THE COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 



get back into operation again? * * * How much money are you spending on the 

 Nova concept? 



Mr. Gray. We are probably spending about $75,000 trying to identify its 

 characteristics as related to launch facilities and launch operations. 



Maxime A. Faget, Assistant Director for Engineering and Develop- 

 ment at the Manned Spacecraft Center, also worked on one version of 

 Nova which would cluster huge solid rockets as a first stage. "Wc 

 called the individual solid rocket 'the Tiger,' " explained Faget. "We 

 figured it would be a noisy animal and would roar like a Tiger." Of 

 course, Faget was not at the hearing to explain what he had in mind. 

 But the real "Tiger" left no doubt where he stood on the whole 

 question of Nova. The following exchange took place between Teague 

 and Gray: 



Mr. Teague. If I were you, I would never use the word "Nova" again. 

 Mr. Gray We never will, so help me. 



PROTECTING LAUNCH OPERATIONS 



Ordinarily, Tiger Teague did not respond to anonymous phone 

 calls. But this one had a strange ring of truth to it. "What happened 

 was that I got an anonymous call from either Jacksonville or Atlanta," 

 Teague explained. It was a tip that the Air Force was plotting to take 

 over title to the expanded NASA launch facilities at Cape Canaveral. 



Throughout the late summer of 1961, negotiations between the 

 Air Force and NASA went on to define the details of NASA's proposal 

 to buy over 80,000 acres of land for $60 million, to become the Nation's 

 major space launch base. When agreement was reached, NASA au- 

 thorized the Corps of Engineers to proceed with the purchase, using 

 reprogramed funds left over from having abandoned the Nova program. 



Kurt Debus, Director of the Kennedy Space Center, got together 

 with Maj. Gen. Leighton Davis, the Air Force commander of the 

 Atlantic Missile Range, to work out an agreement which was sub- 

 sequently ratified by Webb and Deputy Defense Secretary Roswell 

 Gilpatric. Once the land was purchased, General Davis surprised 

 Debus by informing him that title to the land should be transferred 

 to the Air Force because they owned all the previous Atlantic Missile 

 Range land. 



Teague called Webb and Gilpatric into his office to find out what 

 had motivated this power play, but at this level both officials insisted 

 that everything was sweetness and light. "So I just picked up the 

 phone and called the Corps of Engineers," Teague said, and the corps 

 confirmed the Air Force efforts to obtain title to the new land. 



Meanwhile, down at the Cape, Teague and his subcommittee 

 began to poke around some more. They discovered that space agency 



