Remembering the Space Age. - Black Vault Radio Network (BVRN)

64 reMeMBerING the SpaCe aGe
visionary scientist who foresaw the collapse of civilization using new historicalpredictive
methods, becomes the sole possessor of knowledge of atomic
technology and hence the last hope for humanity’s future. 29 But by the end of
the 1950s, post-apocalyptic novels set in nuclear winter ruled the genre: Nevil
Shute’s On the Beach (1957), pat Frank’s Alas, Babylon (1959), and Walter M.
Miller, Jr.’s A Canticle for Leibowitz (1959). Space, then, was a natural avenue
into which the eisenhower administration could expand its policy of scientifc
prestige in the service of the state while avoiding the stigmas becoming
associated with nuclear technology.
the NatIONaL aerONaUtICS aND SpaCe aCt OF 1958
Of special importance to the current analysis are the sections of the National
aeronautics and Space act of 1958 that were inspired by the atomic energy
acts of 1946 and 1954. Specifcally, these are: the relation of the Department
of Defense to the new agency, the role of international cooperation, and the
apportionment of intellectual property.
When president-elect eisenhower was briefed on aeC activities in
November 1952, he took special exception to Gordon Dean’s acquiescence to
the air Force’s demand for atomic-powered plane research in the face of good
evidence that such a program would not produce a viable aircraft. “Looking
out the window he declared that this kind of reasoning was wrong. If a civilian
agency like the Commission thought that a military requirement was untenable
or wasteful in terms of existing technology, there was an obligation to oppose
it.” 30 this was a prescient moment for it foreshadowed the problem of divvying
up responsibility between competing civilian and military institutions during
the formation of NaSa.
analogies to the atomic energy Commission were widespread throughout
the legislative creation of the new space agency. During the congressional
hearings, eilene Galloway, a national defense analyst at the Library of Congress,
was invited by representative McCormack (the chair of the house committee)
to write a report on the issues facing Congress in the drafting of the National
aeronautics and Space act. 31 her report was widely read and was reprinted
in both the Senate and house proceedings and is notable for several reasons.
First, Galloway drew the immediate conclusion that a comparison to the issues
29. Special thanks to Dan Bouk for pointing out this poignant example from a trilogy I have read
four times yet somehow overlooked: Isaac asimov’s Foundation (Gnome press, 1951), Foundation
and Empire (Gnome press, 1952), and Second Foundation (Gnome press, 1953).
30. hewlett and holl, Atoms for Peace and War, p. 14.
31. Galloway also served as special consultant to Lyndon Johnson during the Senate hearings and has
since become a noted aerospace historian.