IN THE BEGINNING, THE SELECT COMMITTEE Jl 



On April 16, Dr. Hugh L. Dryden appeared before the committee, 

 armed with impressive credentials as the Director of the National 

 Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. Dr. Dryden. whose NACA was 

 merged into the new NASA, was everybody's logical choice to head 

 the new space agency up to the time he stumbled before the select 

 committee. In response to a question about manned space flight, Dr. 

 Dryden made the offhand comment that "tossing a man up in the air 

 and letting him come back" had about the same technical value as 

 the circus stunt of shooting a young lady out of a cannon. The remark 

 received wide press coverage, and as a result Chairman McCormack, 

 Representative Fulton, and most members of the committee imme- 

 diately became disenchanted with Dryden and informed the White 

 House thev opposed his appointment as head of the new space agency. 



When Dr. Dryden returned to the committee on April 22, Chair- 

 man McCormack reminded him of his circus cannon statement and 

 asked: 



Do you want to amplify that, or clarify it, or explain it, or anything you want' 



In response, Dr. Dryden pretty well stuck to his original position, 

 summarizing: 



My statement was not directed in criticism of any specific program, but was 

 intended to illustrate the wide variety of simple experiments, which give you little 

 information, to much more complicated and costly experiments which give vou a 

 great deal more information. 



Chairman McCormack generally voiced the conclusions of the 

 select committee members when he observed: 



Some people thought, assuming an agency were established and you were 

 appointed the Director, the head of it, that it might indicate the state of your mind 

 on your part where you are more wedded to the past activities of your organization 

 than the future activities. 



Dr. Dryden, who subsequently served as Deputy Administrator 

 under NASA's first two Administrators, T. Keith Glennan and James 

 E. Webb, also did not endear himself to the select committee by the 

 tone of his testimony on August 1, 1958, during consideration of a 

 construction authorization for NASA. The exchanges developed as 

 follows: 



Mr. Fulton. You would say this program is no attempt to leapfrog the Soviets' 

 plans to get ahead of them? 



Dr. Dryden. In all honesty, I would have to say that the prospective space 

 programs are not such as to leapfrog the Soviets immediately, or very soon. 



Mr. Fulton. Thank you. 



Mr. Brooks. Is this an attempt to catch up with the Soviets' program? 



Dr. Dryden. This is an attempt to establish a national program for the United 

 States. It starts at a beginning which I think is adequate. It most decidedly is not a 

 crash program to catch up with anybody. 



