Document 9

Title: Special Committee on Space Te c h n o l o g y, “Recommendations to the NASA R e g a rding a National Civil Space Program,” October 28, 1958.

Source: NASA Historical Reference Collection, History Office, NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.

By the end of 1957, the NACA was heavily involved in space-related re s e a rch, which constituted 40 to 50 percent of its total eff o rt. Sensing that the NACA might be the obvious choice for taking thelead in the American space eff o rt after Sputnik, on January 12, 1958, General James Doolittle, theN A C A’s chair, created a Special Committee on Space Te c h n o l o g y. While NACA Director Hugh Dry-den addressed the institutional issues involved in transforming the NACA into NASA, the SpecialCommittee on Space Technology was charged with addressing specific areas of space technologyd e s e rving early attention. NASA was formally established on October 1, 1958, and the committeeissued its final re p o rt at the end of that month. The following document reprints the re c o m m e n d a-tions to NASA on a national civil space program off e red by the committee on October 28, 1958.

NASA’s Origins and the Dawn of the Space Age

NASA’s Origins and the Dawn of the Space Age

Monographs in Aerospace History #10

NASA’s Origins and the Dawn of the Space Age

Monographs in Aerospace History #10

NASA’s Origins and the Dawn of the Space Age

Monographs in Aerospace History #10

NASA’s Origins and the Dawn of the Space Age

Monographs in Aerospace History #10

NASA’s Origins and the Dawn of the Space Age

Monographs in Aerospace History #10

NASA’s Origins and the Dawn of the Space Age

Monographs in Aerospace History #10

NASA’s Origins and the Dawn of the Space Age

Monographs in Aerospace History #10

NASA’s Origins and the Dawn of the Space Age

Monographs in Aerospace History #10

NASA’s Origins and the Dawn of the Space Age

Monographs in Aerospace History #10

NASA’s Origins and the Dawn of the Space Age