414 HISTORY OF Illl COMMITTE1 ON SCIENC1 AND TECHNOLOGY 



on November 16, 1970, a memorandum from Miller to all committee 



members read: 



Section 102 i 7 of the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 prescribes 

 as an objective international cooperation in the peaceful application of the results 

 nt our space effort. 



The committee has actively pursued this matter and maintains constant surveil- 

 lance over NAS \'s implementation of the above provision. Periodic staff conferences 

 with NASA officials are held and NASA is required to keep the committee fullv and 

 currently informed. 



In addition to the major agreement with the Soviet Union concerning compatible 

 rendezvous and docking arrangements, NASA, on behalf of the United States, has 

 consummated agreements this year with many other nations. There is attached for 

 your information a NASA report to the committee outlining agreements reached 

 this year. More detailed information is available in the committee files. 



Thus, although there was a great deal of opposition to the trend 

 of the agreements, Chairman Miller got the jump on his committee 

 members by deluging them with so much information that they had 

 to confess they had come in after the movie had started, and thus 

 their criticisms were slightly dulled. At first, discussions were confined 

 to compatible rendezvous and docking mechanisms or perhaps a joint 

 visit to Skylab or the Russian space station Salyut. But when Low 

 went ro Moscow in January 1971, his discussions with Keldysh ad- 

 vanced to a more specific talk on the use of existing Apollo and Soyuz 

 spacecraft for a linkup. 



On January 26, 1971, for the first time in the history of the Science 

 Committee, a representative of the Soviet Union testified before the 

 committee. Dr. Viktor A. Ambartsumian, president of the Academy 

 of Sciences of the Armenian S.S.R., Yerevan, U.S.S.R., delivered a 

 paper before the Panel on Science and Technology which was mainly 

 devoted to scientific cooperation. He slipped in a sentence which 

 nobody noticed: 



I was impressed by todav's report by Doctor Low about the possibilities of 

 cooperative work in space between Soviet and American scientists. 



What he was referring to was Low's address before the National 

 Space Club, reviewing his recent successful trip to Moscow. 



It is interesting that Dr. Low, in his initial presentations as 

 Acting NASA Administrator before the full committee in March 1971, 

 played clown Apollo-Soyuz. The roseate glow of success of Apollo 14 

 was still fresh on everyone's mind, and Alan Shepard and his fellow 

 astronauts appealed in person to tell of their recent feat. Dr. Wernher 

 von Braun once again dazzled the committee with his clear view of 

 the future. But precious little del. ul was given, other than the almost 

 casual closing statement by Dr. Low: 



uly the Soviets have, for tile first tunc, been willing to viisuiss with us, 

 seriously and openly, the possibilities for meaning eration in space. 1 will 



