WHO SHOULD CONTROL SPACE?

The question of what kind of federal agency should control the U.S. space offensive burst on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue last week. Under discussion by a select and secret committee set up by the President and chaired by Scientific Adviser Dr. James Killian were four possible answers:

The Defense Department. As the U.S. pioneers in rocketry and space research, the armed forces are already deeply and impressively competent in the arts of rocketry and space planning, have close connections with the nation's best scientific brains. Conceivably the Defense Department --through its Advanced Research Projects Agency--could evolve into the overall space agency more rapidly than any new agency. Most scientists agree that defense needs should have first call on space research but vigorously oppose putting any overall program into Pentagon hands. Principal reason: the potentialities of the development of space range far beyond military considerations, should not be confined by military control. Tentatively the President's thinking is that the military is best able to judge its own space needs, but would weaken this very capability by undertaking the nonmilitary aspects of space development.

The Atomic Energy Commission. Advocates of AEC control argue that since sophisticated space vehicles will be atomic-powered, the fission-knowledgeable Atomic Energy Commission is the logical agency to supervise perfection of such vehicles. Moreover, AEC is a civilian agency already in a scientific business, with a keen understanding of military needs, e.g., hydrogen bombs, as well as civilian problems, e.g., atomic power. Opponents point out that AEC maintains no launching sites or rocket laboratories and has insufficient space-trained personnel, could be no more than a management organization farming out work.

New Civilian Agency. On the theory that far horizons demand a fresh approach, some space planners advocate an entirely new federal agency that would direct either the entire U.S. space program or, at minimum, its nonmilitary aspects. House Majority Leader John McCormack has proposed a five-member National Science Council. In the Senate, Arkansas' John McClellan and Minnesota's Hubert Humphrey have sponsored a measure authorizing establishment of a department of science and technology run by a secretary with Cabinet rank. Currently these proposals for another Government agency are downrated because the agency would have to undergo the lengthy labor pains of its own birth before it could even effectively contemplate the problems of space.

Coordination Agency. Already backed by 43 years' expert experience in studying the problems of flight, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics has organized a special 15-member committee on space technology, has volunteered to act as a coordinator of nonmilitary space ventures rather than a central control. Under the NACA proposal, the National Academy of Sciences would plan experiments and establish priorities, the National Science Foundation would provide funds and handle construction and design of special apparatus, while the NACA itself would conduct scientific space flights and maintain liaison with the Defense Department's ARPA. Both NACA Chairman James H. Doolittle and NACA Director Dr. Hugh Dryden are on the President's panel of space advisers. In the days when even the experts do not know precisely what the U.S. space effort will require, the NACA proposal has the merit of a pragmatic approach without the need of a vast new organization competing for scarce space talents. At the moment, it is the proposal with the most appeal to the White House. ,

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