THE OVERTON BROOKS YEARS, 1959-61 4 | 



"This report is one of the most fascinating studies ever prepared 

 for the Congress," lyrically states the introduction. It all started when 

 the thinking of the leading scientists, engineers, industrialists, 

 military officials and public servants was solicited to give their 

 prophecies under the pretentious title of "Whither the Space Age in 

 the Next Decade." Naturally, when eminent authorities in the United 

 States, Great Britain, Germany, Italy, and the Far East were asked 

 by the majority leader of the House of Representatives to give their 

 considered opinions on the world of the future, they responded quickly 

 in a remarkable series of analyses. 



It is interesting to measure the predictions against what actually 

 happened during the decade. So far as manned flight to the Moon and 

 return, the most optimistic was Dr. Herbert York, Director of Defense 

 Research and Engineering, who prophesied that man could first set 

 foot upon the lunar dust in "just about 10 years (perhaps in as little as 

 7, if a high priority were placed on this goal)." Donald W. Douglas 

 felt that — 



certainly within 10 years manned flights around the Moon and return can be 

 accomplished, and possibly during that time manned landings on the Moon and 

 return will be possible. 



Dr. Wernher von Braun correctly noted that neither Soviet nor 

 American technology would be far enough advanced in the next decade 

 for manned flights to Mars or Venus, but that instrumented probes 

 to those planets "are a certainty." Arthur C. Clarke, English scientific 

 author, very correctly foresaw the day when stationary satellites 

 would make television available to everyone on Earth. The predictors 

 were perhaps too optimistic in their assessment of the precision of 

 weather predictions which might result from weather satellites. 



The dunce cap for the worst prediction perhaps should go to the 

 unnamed expert who was sure that mail delivery in the space age 

 would be considerably speeded up. 



One of the most significant aspects of the committee publication 

 was the focus it concentrated on the goal of reaching the Moon within 

 a decade, which later became the most dramatic aspect of the space 

 program. 



THE COMMITTEE JURISDICTION 



One of the outstanding contributions which Chairman Brooks 

 made toward the development of the Committee on Science and Astro- 

 nautics was his incessant effort to both preserve and broaden the juris- 

 diction of the committee. Lacking the clout of a Carl Vinson, without 

 the great personal and official power of a John McCormack, and absent 

 the finesse of many other committee chairmen, Overton Brooks kept up 

 such a whirlwind of activity in so many different fields that he was a 



