118 HISTORY OF THE COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 



the Manned Space Flight Subcommittee, he was able to advise the 

 committee during the early hectic days when many decisions had to 

 be made on millions of dollars of construction for the space program. 

 Colonel Peacock assisted in the preparation of an amendment the 

 committee proposed in 1962 to require NASA to utilize the facilities 

 design criteria and construction standards established by the General 

 Services Administration, the U.S. Navy Bureau of Yards and Docks and 

 the Army Corps of Engineers — until such time as NASA established 

 its own standards. 



When it was pointed out to Teague that NASA opposed the amend- 

 ment, Teague remarked to the committee at a May 10, 1962 executive 

 session: "I can see nothing wrong, and it seems to me it is protection 

 for our committee until we know that they have standards. I am not 

 going to permit them to build a palace some place to embarrass all 

 of us." 



The committee voted the amendment, NASA appealed to the 

 Senate, and the conference report made the following notation: 



The Senate amendment contained language similar to the House provision, but 

 inserted the clause, "to the fullest extent practicable." The managers on the part of 

 the House agreed to this language change, based on information from NASA that a 

 substantial portion of design work had been completed and the more restrictive 

 language of the House bill would require a detailed review of the completed design 

 work, thereby delaying the national space program, unless the flexibility provided 

 by the Senate amendment was accepted. 



The loophole driven by the Senate served to give NASA the leeway not 

 to move very fast to develop their own construction standards. Colonel 

 Peacock's tour with the committee ended at the close of 1962, and he 

 was replaced by Lt. Col. Harold A. Gould, already well-known to 

 Chairman Miller and other Members through his able testimony on 

 Army construction projects before the Armed Services and other 

 committees. "He was their talk man," recalled Ducander "so he knew 

 a good number of the committee members casually and some of our 

 Armed Services Committee staff because he was over there a good 

 number of times." 



"When I got here, they handed me two large justification books," 

 Gould says. "I didn't know what the space program was all about, 

 and I didn't know what the words were — all those acronyms — and 

 finally after struggling in the office for three weeks with these two 

 books involving $800 million worth of construction (authorizations), 

 I went to George Miller and I said: 'Mr. Chairman, I don't even know 

 where these places are, and I don't understand these words. ' ' He felt 

 that only a personal inspection would produce the information the 

 committee needed. 



