Exploring the Unknown - NASA's History Office

the expectation of favorable results is required.
In the later operational period, after practical, earth-oriented applications of spaceborne
systems have been demonstrated cost-effective, users should be expected to pay
their own way with NASA bearing responsibility for launching, tracking, data acquisition,
and data dissemination.
Security and the Department of Defense
It may be that the Department of Defense must be considered a special case in the
sort of situation envisaged above but it would seen neither necessary nor desirable for
NASA to abandon the field. NASA’s charter is clear in authorizing military support and,
properly handled, such undertakings will enhance public confidence in the worth of
NASA programs. NASA’s predecessor, the NACA [National Advisory Committee for
Aeronautics], supported the military without diminution of its public image or international
reputation. In addition, workable arrangements exist with respect to classified
undertakings and these can be extended into the new arena.
Proposals have been advanced that NASA be restricted from using some readily available
technology as, for example, cameras larger than 6 inch aperture for gathering earth
data from orbit. Such blanket proscriptions must never be allowed to become established
policy since this would render some very promising remote sensing techniques inaccessible
to anyone but the DOD. The existence of the technology which would be useful, and
its capabilities, are openly known, hence security policy should concentrate on the collection
and utilization of certain data and not on the equipment. Moreover, NASA has no
need for access to special technologies which are of uniquely military character and which
are therefore not at issue.
International Considerations
The reluctance in various sectors to consider international space applications programs
must be broken down if we are not to forego an excellent opportunity to foster genuine
international cooperation as well as to greatly enhance our prestige around the
world. There is ample successful precedent for international cooperation in space and it
would be a mistake not to expand on it. Whatever peculiar problems are posed by an
effort like an Earth Resources Survey, our experience with international efforts in
research, in meteorology, in communications, and in manned flight offers an excellent
basis upon which to proceed. It may be possible to initiate viable efforts on a national
basis, but the full potential of “benefits for all mankind” will not be achieved without substantial
international participation.
[4] Feasibility, Development, and Operations
EXPLORING THE UNKNOWN 255
It is quite important to differentiate between these phases of program effort since the
policy to be pursued, as well as the promise of results, may be quite different in each case.
The current aircraft program and early Apollo Applications flights are aimed at establishing
the feasibility of remote sensing from orbit in the many spectral bands of interest.
Based on Gemini [handwritten insertion in the original: “, meteorological satellites,”]
and aircraft work to date, however, I believe that sufficient technical feasibility has been
established to warrant laying out a development program. Such a program planning effort
would provide focus and perspective for on-going and future feasibility efforts. It would
furnish a structure into which the results of these efforts could be fitted, thereby hastening
the day on which a development program could be initiated. Potential user agencies