1014 HISTORY OF THE COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 



Chapter IV 



Avuncular and at times irascible, Chairman Miller developed a 

 closer rapport with the scientific community, the National Science 

 Foundation, and the National Bureau of Standards. The committee 

 took the initiative to cut down the size and eventually terminate 

 the super booster, Nova, which had originally been designed to make 

 direct manned ascent to the Moon. The committee recognized that 

 Nova was no longer needed when the lunar orbit rendezvous was 

 picked as the technique of manned lunar landing. 



Chapter V 



While Miller was building international relationships in the 

 scientific Held, Teague and his Manned Space Flight Subcommittee 

 were crisscrossing the country, dropping in on aerospace contractors, 

 NASA installations, and laboratories to check on contracts, expendi- 

 tures, and timetables. With the full support and encouragement of the 

 committee, Colonel Gould was on the road frequently to spur NASA 

 to adopt stricter design criteria and construction standards. Mean- 

 while Daddario, along with his key staff man Yeager, was broadening 

 the legislative use of scientific talent and advice through several 

 formalized panels, the encouragement of the Science Policy Research 

 Division of the Library of Congress, and generally throwing out the 

 congressional welcome mat to science and technology throughout 

 the world. The committee rendered powerful support for the expansion 

 of education in both the natural and social sciences, primarily through 

 the National Science Foundation. Dr. Philip Handler, President of 

 the National Academy of Sciences, put it this way, in a letter to 

 Teague on July 13, 1978: 



Not only did the creation of your committee provide a formal institutional 

 arrangement for legislative promotion and oversight of science and technology, it 

 also gave to the Nation's scientific and technological community a valuable forum 

 at our national seat of government for interaction with the political process. 



Chapter VI 



In addition to his concentration on oversight of the NASA pro- 

 gram, Teague placed heavy stress on educating the Congress and the 

 public on the practical values of space. He encouraged a steady stream 

 of congressional visitors to Cape Canaveral for manned space launches, 

 pioneered the establishment of a visitor's center at the Cape, stressed 

 the development of a more practical public affairs program for NASA, 

 and repeatedly needled NASA to give more attention to the spinoffs 

 or industrial and human applications of the space program. Fuqua and 

 Frey also reiterated this point, especially as NASA's budget declined. 



