DECISION ON THE SPACE SHUTTLE 



295 



I trust the decision will be forthcoming soon to continue with the contract as 

 awarded to Rockctdyne for the good oi the Space Shuttle program and the welfare 

 of the counci \ 



An innocenr little note attached to the carbon copy of Chairman 

 Miller's letter included the typed notation: "Attached letter drafted 

 by North American-Rockwell." 



Even the have-nots of the committee tried to get into the act. 

 At the request of Congressman Hechler, NASA staged an all-day 

 conference and expended considerable Federal funds for an elaborate 

 briefing of West Virginia manufacturers and small businessmen, 

 advising them how to get a fairer share of space contracts. 



The oversight activities of the committee were searching, analytical 

 and thorough. Under the leadership of Chairman Teague, while he 

 chaired the Manned Space Flight and Oversight Subcommittees and 

 later the full committee, and ably followed by his successors — Fuqua 

 and Downing the annual visits to the contractors and installations, 

 plus the insistence on close committee and staff" contact, produced 

 excellent results. The committee and its leadership effectively carried 

 out the dictum of Chairman Teague: "We don't want any scandals in 

 NASA." And there were no major scandals, either. 



To be sure, there were instances of waste. There were instances of 

 mismanagement, fostered by poor administration. There were losses 

 of human life, and incredible errors which resulted in the loss of 

 valuable Federal investments in spacecraft. Yet the space program 

 was remarkably free of the kind of criminal activity resulting in the 

 enrichment of private or Federal officials as sometimes seemed to 

 occur in other Federal programs. The alertness of the committee 

 oversight deserves credit for this result. 



A NEW CHAIRMAN FOR MANNED SPACE FLIGHT SUBCOMMITTEE 



When Tiger Teague succeeded George Miller as chairman of the 

 full committee in 1973, the game of musical chairs for subcommittee 

 chairmanships began. Throughout the 1960's and early '70's, Teague 

 had been the guiding force of the Manned Space Flight Subcommittee 

 which he chaired. Starting in 1963, Don Fuqua had joined Teague's 

 subcommittee and the two worked well in tandem, ably supported 

 as the years went on by Republican veterans like Winn, Wydler and 

 Frev. 



Fresh from two terms in the Florida state legislature, where he 

 had been named in 1961 as one of the most valuable members, Fuqua 

 was the youngest Democrat in the U.S. Congress when he was first 

 elected at the age of 29 in 1962. The former state president of the 



