RACING FOR TH1 MOON 



65 



reflecting the feeling of his administrative superiors, especially Presi- 

 dent Eisenhower. 



Repeatedly, the committee tried to get Glennan to admit that if 

 he had more money for J liferent aspects of the space program, then 

 \ \SA could perform its various missions faster. Chairman Brooks, in 

 opening "space posture" hearings on January 20, I960, made a sharp 

 and challenging assertion: 



Those of us on this committee would be indulging in fanciful thinking if we 

 did not admit to ourselves that the U.S. space effort has reached neither the pace nor 

 the proportions we had hoped for when we passed the National Aeronautics and 

 Space Act in July 1958. Perhaps we expected coo much. But there are definite indi- 

 cations — these have existed some time that a true sense of urgency has not constantly- 

 attended the American space program. 



THE SPACE RACE 



To focus attention on the importance of speedier and more signifi- 

 cant forward progress, the committee called Livingston T. Merchant, 

 Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, and George V. Allen, 

 Director of the U.S. Information Agency. Allen testified that "It is 

 hardly an overstatement to say that space has become for many people 

 the primary symbol of world leadership in all areas of science and 

 technology." Merchant underlined the obvious point that "the per- 

 formance of the United States and the Soviet Union in outer space will 

 inevitably be compared by the rest of the world." The committee made 

 no bones of the fact that the forum of the committee hearing, well 

 covered by the news media, was being utilized as a sounding board to 

 spur a higher level of activity by both the administration and NASA. 



Individual members of the committee hammered home the theme 

 that America must wake up to realize that we were in a true space race. 

 Addressing a conference on "Electrical Engineering in Space Technol- 

 ogy" in Dallas on April 13, I960, Subcommittee Chairman Teague 

 noted that "when Russia first put her Sputnik into orbit, we lost an 

 important battle in the eyes of the uncommitted. Also, when Russia — 

 through Lunik 2 — implanted the hammer and sickle on the Moon— 

 we lost still another important battle. We cannot afford to lose many 

 more such battles." On March 17, I960, Representative Daddario 

 bluntly accused NASA of lacking "foresight and urgency" by failing 

 to develop a plan to land a man on the Moon prior to 1970. Referring 

 to rumors that there might be a Russian manned flight to the Moon, 

 Daddario, in an address in Baltimore, claimed that the future of the free 

 world might "depend on whether or not a U.S. mission is already on 

 the Moon when that event occurs." 



Glennan maintained his serenity and aplomb in his appearances 

 before the House committee. But a small anecdote reveals the fact 



