SPACE SCIENCF. APPLICATIONS, AND ADVANCED RESEARCH, 1963-69 239 



States. We came to the same stone wall that you usually come to with the State 

 Department when you are talking about doing something in a hurry. They, I think, 

 would be willing to explore this, but it would take them 6 months to properly 

 explore it so they could get an answer. I don't have 6 months. 



Gradually, bur decisively, the subcommittee moved toward a 

 unanimous decision. Karth personally was not disturbed that NASA 

 and the Space Science Board of the National Academy of Sciences 

 wanted to go ahead with the Venus probe, rather than shifting the 

 concentration to the Mars probe. To this line of argument Karth 

 responded : 



I do not agree that we ought to leave all decisions bearing on science to the 

 scientists, or that all political decisions should be made by politicians. 



The full committee and the House supported the decision of the Karth 

 subcommittee to concentrate on the Voyager probe to Mars rather than 

 the Venus shot. But as so frequently happened, the decision became 

 untracked when the scientific community mobilized behind NASA 

 to appeal the action in the Senate, where they not only won but also 

 reversed the House action in the conference committee. Reflecting on 

 the turn of events, Luther J. Carter wrote in Science magazine that 

 Karth "by general agreement is an intelligent and unusually hard- 

 working committee chairman" who "has worked diligently at 

 understanding the programs entrusted to his review." He added: 



His experience illustrates the classic frustration of Congress in an era of deep 

 Government involvement in science and technology. How does it pass judgment on 

 highly technical programs without being either a rubberstamp or an incompetent 

 intruder upon the affairs ot experts? 



Usually, the Karth subcommittee managed to cope with that dilemma 

 extremely well, to the benefit of the taxpayers and the Nation. 



The Venus fly-by took place in 1967, passing 2,600 miles from the 

 planet, refining the temperature and atmosphere measurements made 

 by the 1962 Mariner flight. The ambitious Voyager program was 

 fostered and encouraged by the Karth subcommittee, but fell victim 

 to the budget woes caused by the Vietnam war, and was mercifully 

 put to sleep by the Senate and House Appropriations Committees 

 in 1967. The decade ended with two Mariner shots which flew within 

 2,000 miles of the Martian surface and took many excellent close-up 

 pictures of the planet. 



EARTH RESOURCES TECHNOLOGY SATELLITES 



In 1967, the Karth subcommittee noted in its report: 



The Members uniformly support the objectives of the various space applications 

 projects. These efforts are expected to result in tangible and measurable economic 

 benefits to the Nation and to the world in the foreseeable future. Great strides have 

 already been made in space meteorological and communications systems because the 

 Congress has given generous support to these projects in the past years. 



