gg HISTORY OF THE COMMITTEE OX SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 



TRANSFER OP THE VON BRAUN TEAM TO NASA 



Early in 1959, members of the Science and Astronautics Committee 

 visited Cape Canaveral, Fl.i . . witnessed the launches of several missiles, 

 and spent a considerable amount of time at the Army Ballistic Missile 

 Agency in Huntsville, Ala. The boom of a Bomarc missile shattering 

 the predawn darkness at Cape Canaveral took second place to the 

 powerful influence of a personal visit with Dr. Wernher von Braun. 



It was easy for the committee members to see and appreciate at 

 Huntsville why von Braun was such a towering figure in the space 

 program. Beyond his stellar technical ability, von Braun demonstrated 

 the inspirational leadership around which thousands of determined 

 scientists and engineers rallied. Not only the repatriated group of 

 newly naturalized associates of von Braun who had been with him at 

 Peenemiinde, but countless other experts in the developing new field of 

 rocketry and space found von Braun a leader whom they trusted and 

 admired. To the committee members, von Braun was a symbol of 

 success. His predictions always seemed to come true, he spoke in 

 graphic terms which carried beautifully etched imagery, and he 

 demonstrated to the committee and the world that he practiced what 

 he preached. He was also a popular iigure with whom Congressmen 

 and the public quickly identified. 



The Science Committee early on recognized and took steps to 

 protect the integrity of one of von Braun 's greatest assets — his team. 

 Even before the standing committee was formally organized in 1959, 

 the select committee recognized the team concept which von Braun 

 was stressing. In response to a question from Representative Gerald 

 Ford, von Braun told the committee: "To build up a good team takes 

 years, to wreck it takes a few moments. And yet, these experienced 

 development teams are our greatest single national asset in the race for 

 leadership in missiles and space exploration." 



The startling success of von Braun's Explorer I, and his continued 

 success as a supersalesman for space, made the committee even more 

 determined to preserve the "team." NASA made a number of attempts 

 to negotiate the transfer from the Army of those experts who had 

 experience with developing large boosters needed to launch sizable- 

 spacecraft. 



All three military services stepped up high-powered propaganda 

 campaigns designed to gain public and congressional support for 

 expanding their own programs in space. Secretary of the Army Wilber 

 Brucker threatened to resign if von Braun's group were taken from the 

 Army; the Air Force endured some gentle kidding from the Science 

 Committee by redefining all space as "aerospace;" and the Navy 

 argued before the committee that mobile sea launches like Polaris 



