IN THE BEGINNING. THE SELECT COMMITTEE 3 



Sputnik II went into orbit with the space dog Laika. How could those 

 ignorant Bolshevik peasants surpass good old American technological 

 know-how? How could they manage to orbit a 184-pound payload, 

 and then follow with the smooth orbiting of a 1,120-pound payload? 

 How did the Russian scientists and engineers overtake us? These 

 questions were on the lips of Congressmen, officials in charge of our 

 missile and satellite programs, and other national leaders. But even 

 more important, the questions were repeated throughout the land by 

 people high and low who were deeply disturbed. 



The prairie fire of demands for action swept across the Nation. The 

 clamor rose to a roar. The American people could sense the serious blow 

 to American prestige around the world. The feeling ran deeper than 

 who could put the biggest payload into orbit. There was a wide- 

 spread uneasiness about our educational system and why we weren't 

 turning out the scientific and engineering talent to meet the Soviet 

 challenge. Fear of Soviet space missiles gripped the Nation. 



The House and Senate leadership showed they were much more in 

 tune with public thinking than a seemingly indecisive executive 

 branch. Speaker Rayburn and his majority leader had early and positive 

 reactions. "When Sputnik went up, naturally we discussed it," recalled 

 John McCormack. "And I knew we were not going to meet the chal- 

 lenge that Sputnik presented to us by just talking. We had to act — we 

 had to act ourselves in the held of outer space. * * * Sam realized the 

 importance of it and he said : 'Well, you'll have to be chairman. ' I said, 

 All right, Sam I will.' 



The second-ranking member of the House Armed Services Com- 

 mittee, Representative Overton Brooks, of Louisiana, was in Paris 

 when the startling news of Sputnik first broke. His staff assistant, 

 Charles Ducander, recollects: 



I'll never forget that we were staying at the George Cinq and we came out of the 

 hotel and bought an American language newspaper — I guess it was the old Herald- 

 Tribune, Paris edition — and here on the front page is the headline — Russia had 

 orbited a satellite. Well, Brooks about jumped out of his skin. He could talk of 

 nothing else. As a matter of fact, we came home two days early. He said: "The first 

 thing I'm going to do when Congress goes back in session is to drop in a bill to form 

 a special committee because we have to catch up with them or surpass them." 



Brooks, who in 1959 was tapped to be the first chairman of the 

 standing committee (the House Committee on Science and Astro- 

 nautics), didn't wait for Congress to convene in 1958 before he stuck in 

 his oar on space policy. The New York Times on October 16, 1957 

 less than two weeks after Sputnik I quoted Brooks as calling on 

 the President to appoint a czar over America's missile and satellite 

 program. 



