SPACE SCIENCE, APPLICATIONS, AND ADVANCED RESEARCH, 1963-69 235 



In January 1961, after intensive competitive design studies by four major com- 

 panies, Hughes Aircraft Co. was selected ro build the Surveyor spacecraft. 



By 1963, NASA became concerned that JPL had its hands full 

 trying to develop the Surveyor Lander along with Ranger and the 

 probes to Venus and Mars being done by Project Mariner. With en- 

 couragement from the committee, the Surveyor Obiter was transferred 

 in mid-1963 from JPL to Langley Research Center. There it was re- 

 designed and renamed "'Lunar Orbiter" and contracted out to Boeing. 



The Karth subcommittee members sharply challenged both the 

 timing and overlap between a lunar orbiter and lunar lander during 

 the 1963 hearings. In its committee report, sustained by the full 

 House, the observation was made that "funds made available pre- 

 viously were transferred to other projects considered by NASA to have 

 higher priority, and virtually no money has been spent on Surveyor 

 Orbiter to date." 



As was customary, NASA appealed to the Senate to get $28.2 million 

 restored and the conference yielded to allow $20 million after im- 

 passioned pleas by both NASA and the scientific community. The 

 effect of the House action was to spur NASA to define and clarify the 

 orbiter mission and to give it the management support which had 

 hitherto been sorelv lacking. 



In repeated hearings, the Karth subcommittee questioned the 

 relationship among the three unmanned lunar missions — Ranger, 

 Surveyor, and Lunar Orbiter, forcing NASA to pinpoint what it really 

 planned to do, when and why. Also, the subcommittee through its 

 rigorous questioning brought out the extent to which these programs 

 were being funded for their scientific value, as against providing data 

 which could assist in insuring the success of the Apollo program. The 

 cost-conscious subcommittee also probed into issues pertaining to the 

 Lunar Orbiter contract with Boeing, which exceeded by $20 million 

 the next highest bidder. 



During 1966 and 1967, five Lunar Orbiters were launched and all 

 five were successful. As a direct result of the Lunar Orbiter successes, 

 five Apollo landing sites were certified. 



In contrast to the Lunar Orbiter, the Surveyor soft lander program 

 ran into deep trouble. The original Hughes contract called for seven 

 flights and the price tag was $67 million, somewhat above the an- 

 nouncement in a 1961 NASA press release that the Surveyor project 

 "is expected to cost upward of $50 million." In October 1965, when 

 the Oversight Subcommittee submitted its report, it was concluded: 



Surveyor already represents an investment by the American taxpayer of almost 

 one-half billion dollars for the first 10 spacecraft plus launch vehicles; the ultimate 

 cost to completion of just this first part of the project is estimated to be approximately 

 $725 million. 



