RACING FOR THE MOON 



69 



were the best path to a workable space program. The Science Commit- 

 tee aired, monitored, and probed into this power struggle. 



Throughout the heated fights of 1959, the Science Committee 

 underlined the basic fact, which was also argued strongly by the 

 Eisenhower administration, that NASA must be the dominant agency 

 for the use of space for peaceful purposes. Beyond this, the committee 

 insisted that the von Braun team must remain intact. 



The transition was not an easy one. Von Braun's boss was the 

 fearlessly outspoken Maj. Gen. John B. Medaris, commander of the 

 Army Ballistic Missile Agency at Huntsville, Ala., a salesman in his 

 own right. General Medaris so impressed the committee that Chairman 

 Brooks tried to persuade him to join the committee staff as a consultant 

 when Medaris eventually retired in 1960. According to James R. Kil- 

 lian's account, "Medaris and von Braun campaigned with fierce reli- 

 gious zeal to obtain a central role in space for the Army." At stake 

 was not only von Braun's 4,000-man team at Huntsville, but also the 

 prestigious Jet Propulsion Laboratory at Pasadena, Calif. "JPL" was 

 operated by the California Institute of Technology under Army con- 

 tract, and its team was headed by Dr. William H. Pickering. NASA 

 desperately needed the in-house capability possessed by both the von 

 Braun and Pickering organizations, and here is the point where the 

 committee played an extremely helpful role. 



Because of strong opposition from the Army and some individual 

 Senate and House Members — not primarily on the Science Committee — 

 President Eisenhower initially decided on December 3, 1958, to move 

 only JPL from the Army to NASA, and to allow von Braun's team to 

 work in Huntsville and accept assignments from NASA while tech- 

 nically remaining with the Army. The work already underway at 

 Huntsville on the Saturn program — absolutely essential for the flights 

 to the Moon — prompted NASA to keep pressing for a full transfer of 

 the von Braun team until the Department of Defense and President 

 Eisenhower finally gave their full support in October, 1959. General 

 Medaris and von Braun supported the transfer to NASA when it 

 appeared that a plan was afoot to give the Saturn program to the Air 

 Force, which the Huntsville group feared might reduce its long-range 

 priority. 



Although the actual decision to make the transfer was clearly 

 made by President Eisenhower, the Science and Astronautics Com- 

 mittee made two important contributions. First, the committee from 

 the start indicated its confidence in and strong support for von Braun 

 and the team he represented. Second, the committee held hearings on 

 February 3, I960, to demonstrate its support for House Resolution 567, 

 sponsored by Representative B. F. Sisk of California. 



