234 HISTORY OF THE COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 



Pasadena "to oversee or supervise, not just management practices at 

 JPL, but technical approaches as well." 



The Karth subcommittee charged that JPL had failed to establish 

 rigid and uniform testing and fabrication standards for the Ranger 

 spacecraft. NASA was faulted for regarding JPL more as a field center 

 than a contractor. The final report, which was unanimously approved 

 by the full committee, recommended tighter NASA supervision over 

 JPL "to manage such complex in-house projects such as Ranger and 

 Mariner." Effective August 1, retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Alvin R. 

 Luedccke, the General Manager of the Atomic Energy Commission, 

 was installed as Deputy Director at JPL. General Luedecke was 

 given responsibility for the day-to-day technical and administrative 

 activities at JPL. 



Despite the roughness of the questioning by the Karth Oversight 

 Subcommittee, Webb was generally pleased with the outcome. In a 

 letter to Chairman Miller dated May 4, 1964, Webb confessed to 

 Miller that he was happy that Karth had resisted the pressure to 

 "look for scapegoats." He also remarked that he was happy that 

 Karth had recognized "we are dealing with an extremely delicate 

 situation, much like walking down Fifth Avenue in your BVD's." 



Rigorous testing and checkout followed the Karth investigative 

 hearings, and there were major changes in circuitry design and hard- 

 ware. In July 1964, and subsequently during February and March 

 1965, three highly successful Ranger missions were flown. The pictures 

 taken just before impact resolved details of the Moon's surface less 

 than two feet apart. 



Miller and Karth both used the occasion of the Ranger successes 

 to cement support for the program in Congress. Karth assembled 

 foreign editorial reaction to the Ranger successes for reprinting in the 

 Congressional Record. Chairman Miller exulted: "I want to make it 

 crystal clear that the Jet Propulsion Laboratory is doing a splendid 

 job." 



Miller also arranged for a special briefing for Members of the 

 House of Representatives on August 4, 1964, at which he termed 

 Ranger "one of the greatest accomplishments that NASA has ever 

 made." 



LUNAR ORBITER AND SURVEYOR 



When NASA first began to formulate its plans to investigate the 

 Moon and the planets, primary responsibility was assigned to the Jet 

 Propulsion Laboratory. In the early 1960's, the Surveyor was designed 

 as a soft lander on the Moon, with one version termed a "Surveyor 

 Orbiter." The committee closely followed the development of the 

 Surveyor project from the time in April 1961 that NASA reported to 

 the committee: 



