SPACE SCIENCE AND APPLICATIONS IN THE 1970'S 309 



The enthusiasm of the House committee for a second series of 

 Skvlab missions, plus progress toward a space station, did not meet 

 the same response in the Senate. The "other body", as House Mem- 

 bers by tradition and courtesy referred to the Senate during formal 

 debate, simply declined to make any changes whatsoever in either 

 the budget or substance of the Skylab program. The Senate report in 

 1971 bluntly stated: 



Your committee does not agree with the position taken by the House of in- 

 creasing funds (for Skylab). NASA has testified that they have no intention of going 

 forward with a second Skylab. Therefore, your committee feels that the additional 

 $45 million is unnecessary. 



When the conference committee met, the Senate conferees stood 

 firm in their opposition to a second Skylab series. It was all the House 

 conferees could do to get the Senate to agree to adding $15 million for 

 Skylab rescue capability. The action of the conference committee 

 doomed the Skylab series to end after the 1973 flights. 



Following the conference committee meeting, Teague, as chair- 

 man of the Manned Space Flight Subcommittee asked the Subcommittee 

 on NASA Oversight in October 1971 to do a review and status report 

 on both Skylab and the Space Shuttle. The report was based on ex- 

 tensive visits to contractors and installations in the field. The opti- 

 mism expressed in the report concerning costs, performance and 

 scheduling proved fully justified by the actual results achieved when 

 the Skylab missions were flown in 1973- At the time of the report, 

 which was completed in January 1972, the committee was still holding 

 out the option that it might somehow be possible to have a second 

 series of Skylab missions. These hopes were dashed with the realiza- 

 tion — a familiar story — that there simply wasn't enough money 

 available for anything extra. 



The Subcommittee on NASA Oversight which made the Skylab 

 report included the following: 



Democrats Republicans 



Thomas N. Downing, Virginia, John W. Wydler, New York 



Chairman Robert Price, Texas 



Olin E. Teague, Texas Barry M. Goldwater, Jr., California 



Ken Hechler, West Virginia John N. Happy Camp, Oklahoma 



Walter Flowers, Alabama 

 Charles B. Rangel, New York 



' 'One of the most significant benefit-oriented programs of the space 

 age" was the chaiacterization applied to Skylab by NASA's Dale D. 

 Myers in his 1972 testimony before Teague's Manned Space Flight 

 Subcommittee. 



