262 HISTORY OF THE COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 



Admiral Boone reported that the negotiations "were long and at 

 times contentious." But an agreed-upon solution met the congressional 

 deadline of January 1964, and coordination was achieved. The com- 

 mittee decided to stay out of the argument over what to name the new 

 ships. The Secretary of the Navy wanted to name them after cities 

 which had little to do with the space program. Admiral Boone sug- 

 gested that since two ships had already been named after Air Force 

 generals Arnold and Vandenberg that it would be appropriate to name 

 the new instrumentation ships the James E. Webb, Hugh L. Dryden, 

 and Robert C. Seamans who, according to Admiral Boone were "the 

 three men most responsible for the Apollo program." This was 

 promptly vetoed by Webb, and the ships were named instead the 

 Redstone, Vanguard, and Mercury, three names prominently associated 

 with the early days of the space program. 



Coordination, cost saving, and rigorous oversight were high on 

 the list of committee priorities. 



This philosophy dominated the efforts of the Hechler subcom- 

 mittee to insure that building and equipping the network were ac- 

 complished at the lowest possible cost. As Representative Roush told 

 the House in 1964: 



The committee has emphasized to NASA that, insofar as possible, the equipment 

 and facilities authorized for the tracking network must serve all users to the maximum 

 feasible extent. The placement of tracking stations should include consideration of the 

 future space network requirements of the Department of Defense as well as NASA. 



In 1965, the committee discovered that NASA wanted to purchase 

 40 acres of land for a tracking station at Antigua at a cost of $5,000 per 

 acre. The committee asked the Corps of Engineers to examine the 

 availability of other land, and directed that NASA look into working 

 out cooperative arrangements with the Air Force or negotiate for land 

 owned by the British crown. Roush initiated an inquiry which estab- 

 lished the fact that because of agreements with Great Britain, crown 

 lands could be obtained rent free. This information was forwarded to 

 NASA, and NASA proceeded to select a new site on crown land, thus 

 saving the taxpayers the purchase price of private land on Antigua. 

 Furthermore, cooperative arrangements were worked out so that the 

 Air Force provided ground support for the Antigua tracking station. 



Working with the tracking and data acquisition program was a 

 very complex business for members of the committee. Those in the 

 business had an esoteric language which was difficult to comprehend. 

 Even when committee members made inspection trips to view and ask 

 questions about the tracking network, it was a different world where 

 computers and tapes whirred and mathematical formulae seemed so 

 complex as to defy any layman. Addressing tracking network personnel 

 on March 18, 1972, Neil Armstrong said: 



