THE U.S. SPACE PROGRAM is rooted in large part in the concepts, research, and development of Army and Air Force ballistic missile programs. These, in turn, benefited from the German rocket development that took place during World War II. The space program was also rooted in part in the experience of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, which, since 1915, had been engaged in basic aeronautical research for manned flight. By 1950, rocket-powered research airplanes of the X-series as well as propulsion studies for the military brought manned flight to the edge of space. The crystallization of space exploration as a national objective in the United States resulted from the strategic surprise of the launching of Sputnik on October 4, 1957.

In the month after the launching of Sputnik, President Dwight D. Eisenhower established the President’s Scientific Advisory Committee (PSAC) to provide science with a voice within the executive branch. It was headed by Dr. James A. Killian, president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.[1] In March 1958 the President’s Committee on Government Organization, which included his scientific adviser, recommended that a new civilian agency be created to pursue an aggressive space program. The scientific reasons behind this recommendation were explained in a White House white paper released on March 26, 1958, with a statement by the President.[2]

This white paper listed four elements that gave "importance, urgency, and inevitability to the advancement of space technology." They were (1) the compelling urge of man to explore and to discover; (2) defense considerations; (3) the factor of national prestige; and (4) the new opportunities for scientific observation and experiment offered by space technology, which would add to man’s knowledge and understanding of the earth, the solar system, and the universe.

Because the opportunities were so numerous, scientists from many countries would want to participate, and it was suggested that the International Geophysical Year offered a model for international exploration of space. A timetable—not broken into years—listed various types of investigation under these broad headings:

The administration’s bill for the establishment of a space agency was submitted to the Congress in April 1958. After lengthy deliberations on Capitol Hill, the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 was enacted by the Congress and signed by the President. It became law on July 29, 1958.[5] According to the act, space activities would be directed toward peaceful purposes for the benefit of all mankind, leaving military responsibility in space to the Department of Defense. Dr. T. Keith Glennan, president of the Case Institute of Technology, was named first Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and Dr. Hugh L. Dryden was named Deputy Administrator. This was in August 1958.

The organizational nucleus of the new space agency was the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), of which Dr. Dryden had been Director. NACA had focused upon basic aeronautical research for 43 years. During recent years the application of rocket propulsion research to manned flight had led to the development of the X-series aircraft, of which the X-15 became the best known.[6] Through the year following Sputnik, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, under the chairmanship of Dr. James H. Doolittle (who was also a member of PSAC), gave considerable attention to the problem areas that needed research to make space technology a reality.[7]

In November 1957, the month in which the President’s Scientific Advisory Committee was established, NACA set up a Special Committee on Space Technology under the chairmanship of Dr. H. Guyford Stever of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The Stever Committee met for the first time on February 13, 1958, and established seven working groups. The group named to study human factors and training was headed by Dr. W. Randolph Lovelace II, director of the Lovelace Foundation for Medical Education and Research.[8] This group concerned itself with the scientific and nonmilitary biomedical requirements for manned space flight, as well is other biological factors that should be part of a national space program.[*]

[*]Serving with Dr. Lovelace on the ad hoc committee were A. Scott Crossfield, North American Aviation, Inc.; Hubert M. Drake, High-Speed Flight Station, NACA; Brig. Gen. Don D. Flickinger, USAF (MC); Col. Edward B. Giller, USAF; Dr. James D. Hardy, U.S. Naval Air Development Center: Dr. Wright Haskell Langham, Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory; Dr. Ulrich C. Luft, Head, Physiology Department, Lovelace Foundation for Medical Education and Research; and Boyd C. Myers II (Secretary), NACA.

The final report was dated October 27, 1958, the month in which NASA became operational.[9] Briefly, it considered how best to utilize man’s capabilities in space exploration and outlined the means by which the new space agency should develop resources in life-sciences research. Thirteen technical areas were discussed: Program administration; acceleration; high-intensity radiation in space; cosmic radiation; nuclear propulsion; ionization effects; human information processing and communication; displays; closed-cycle living; balloon simulators; space capsules; crew selection and training; and research centers and launching sites. The report noted that because of the rapid development of rocket technology in missile programs, manned satellites and space vehicles had a potential for rapid and revolutionary progress. Concurrent biomedical and physical research and development to determine man’s capabilities in space would be necessary. According to the report:

The Working Group on Human Factors and Training urged that crew selection, survival, safety, and efficiency be considered in all experiments. Experience and training would be the most important factors in crew selection. Experiments with man could well parallel experiments with animals. Indeed, this research could properly be considered an extension of past research in aviation and submarine medicine, but requiring an even more advanced technology.

The ad hoc committee also noted that the time schedule for manned space flight "must be realistic in both the life and physical sciences, taking into consideration the time period necessary to develop a new missile system, and to carry out an intensive laboratory and flight test program . . . . Quality assurance procedures will be required as never before." For a successful space program, a cooperative effort of life scientists and physical scientists representing diverse professional backgrounds would be required. Accumulated experience would be applied to research on vital activities at the whole-body, organ, tissues cellular, molecular, and atomic levels. Understanding of these activities under altered environmental conditions would "result in an orderly progression of research until man shall be ready for space flight." It was recommended that the program include the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, the Atomic Energy Commission, the National Bureau of Standards, the Public Health Service, and the National Academy of Sciences, with the new space agency having primary responsibility.

Since, at the time the final report was submitted, NASA had just become operational and lacked resources in life sciences, it was recommended that NASA "develop a capability as quickly as possible," starting with contract coverage concurrent with in-house growth. The cooperation of other nations in this scientific endeavor was also envisaged. The critical goal of developing a manned satellite program would require a life-sciences committee to study the immediate problems associated with manned space flight and to "recommend specific research investigations to be undertaken by the NASA, and to exchange information on research and development in this field by government and private organizations." The membership of this committee, it was further recommended, should include not only representatives from the Department of Defense, U.S. Public Health Service, National Academy of Sciences, and Atomic Energy Commission, but also universities and foundations.

It was also recommended that a long-range space program be developed. This would require a director of life-sciences research in NASA Headquarters with responsibility for administering a life-sciences program "primarily directed toward the solution of those problems which must be solved prior to man’s exploration of space."

This broad blueprint of the committee was to chart the course of the NASA life-sciences program. Although about a year would pass before NASA established a life-sciences directorate, at the time the report of the ad hoc committee was submitted a NASA Special Life Sciences Committee had already been appointed. This committee was directed to study the immediate medical problems associated with manned space flight, novel problems posed by the space environment and the bringing together of relevant experience from many disciplines and agencies.

Dr. Lovelace was appointed by the NASA Administrator to serve as chairman of this new committee, effective October 1, 1958, the date on which NASA became operational. This Special Committee on Life Sciences would, until its dissolution on March 31, 1960, serve in an advisory capacity to NASA. It included two other members of the Stever committee: General Flickinger, Surgeon and Assistant Deputy Commander for Research, Air Research and Development Command, USAF, who served as Vice Chairman; and Dr. Langham. The remainder of the committee initially included Lt. Comdr. John M. Ebersole (MC), National Medical Center; Lt. Col. Robert H. Holmes (MC), U.S. Army Research and Development Command; Dr. Robert B. Livingston, National Institutes of Health; and Dr. Orr Reynolds, Director of Science, Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering. Capt. G. Dale Smith, USAF (VC), on duty status with NASA Headquarters, served as secretary.[10] Through the next months, this committee provided invaluable professional counsel as the manned space program quickly began to take shape in Project Mercury.

THE BIOASTRONAUTICS MISSION EMERGES

On August 2, 1958, meanwhile Dr. Detlev Bronk, president of the National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council,[11] had formally announced the formation of a 16-man Space Science Board to survey in concert the scientific problems, opportunities, and implications of man’s advance into space. This group, in actual being since June, was under the chairmanship of Dr. Lloyd V. Berkner.[12] Besides acting as the focal point for all Academy-Research Council activities connected with space science research, the board would "coordinate its work with the appropriate civilian and Government agencies, particularly the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Science Foundation, the Advanced Research Projects Agency, and with foreign groups active in this field."[13] Thus, within the scientific community there already existed the organizational framework, both in the Federal Government and in civilian groups, through which basic space science research—as contrasted with applied research and technology—could be administered. This could provide the vehicle for coordination of contracts and resources with universities and with industry.

In the spring of 1958, prior to the establishment of NASA, the Department of Defense had already formally requested that the Academy-Research Council establish an Armed Forces-NRC Committee on Bioastronautics that would concern itself, as necessary, with any field of science in order to pursue its objectives. Pertinent aspects of astronautics, biology, chemistry, medicine, psychology, and related disciplines would be included. Examples of specific research problems were closed-system environments; stress; crew selection, motivation, surveillance, and control, including group dynamics; ground support facilities; weightlessness; metabolic requirements, including nutrition and water balance; cosmic and other forms of radiation; isolation and confinement; displays, controls, and communication; circulation; deceleration and vibration; escape and survival; orientation; and man-machine system problems.[14]

On September 22, 1958, a planning group headed by Brig. Gen. Don D. Flickinger [*] met to consider possible courses of action.[15] The first meeting of the executive council was held in San Antonio, Tex., on November 10, 1958,[16] with Dr. Melvin Calvin, University of California, serving as chairman.[*] This meeting was attended by Dr. Lovelace, Chairman of the new NASA Special Committee on Life Science who noted that while the relationship of his Committee with other Government agencies was not yet clear, major functions were to be the formulation of policies and stimulation of all possible developments related to man’s adaptation to space flight. He therefore welcomed liaison with the Armed Forces-NRC Committee.

Thus, by the fall of 1958 both the civilian and military scientific communities were geared to solution of the biomedical problems presented by the immediate objective of manned space flight. The interrelated efforts of the scientific community at the highest Government level in behalf of space exploration are indicated in chart 1. Through the next years, the Biomedical problems of manned space flight were to be of continuing concern to the life-sciences community of the Nation.

[*]Other members were Dr. Howard J. Curtis, Brookhaven National Laboratory; Dr. Paul M. Fitts, University of Michigan; General Flickinger; Dr. John D. French, University of California Medical Center; Captain Gell; Dr. James D. Hardy, U.S. Naval Air Development Center; Colonel Holmes; and Dr. Otto H. Schmitt, University of Minnesota, who was subsequently to become chairman. (See Appendix. A.)

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