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February 8, 1968 

MEMORANDUM FOR RECORD 

SUBJECT: MOL/DORIAN Briefing to House Committee on Science and 

Astronautics Members 

MOL briefing to the Congressmen named below took place at 1000 

hours on February 5, 1968 in Dr. Brown's Conference Room. 

Rep George P. Miller, Committee Chairman 

Rep Joseph E. Karth 

Rep Emilio Q. Daddario 

Peter A. Gerardi, Staff Technical Consultant 

Preliminary remarks were made to the Congressmen by Secretary Brown 

who made the following points: 

- MOL is a big program and it will receive more and more 

attention from all quarters. 

- The Congressmen present should know more about the MOL 

Program so that they can clearly view the national space effort in 

perspective. That is the purpose of today's brie:]ing. 

- The program is very sensitive from a security standpoint 

and their understanding ant: support was requested. 

- The MOL objective is a_ operational reconnaissance system 

as soon as possible. 

- We are not duplicating NASA, in fact, we are exchanging 

appropriate technology and MOL uses many NASA developed hardware items. 

- The program can dont sooner and with . ar assurance 

by using ::.an in the system. 

excused himself at the conclusion of his rmarks and 

General Stc,- . conducted the formal briefing using the cl- arts listed 

in Attache;, 

The foi...-ag Air Force persort were preset. 

Mn..L: General James T. St - SAFSL 

AAjor General Lawrence S. .::.ghtner SAFLL 

Dr. Michael I. Yarymovych - SAFSL 

Colonel Ralph J. Ford - SAFSLP 

Lt Colonel Don Floyd - SAFLL 

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The principal points brought out by the Congressmen either as 

questions or observations were: 

- How does man contribute to the system? (Daddario) 

- How does man help to get the system sooner and by 

how much? (Daddario) 

-- What does the security accomplish and what is it aimed 

at achieving? (Daddario) 

- How are you able to say is the camera that far along? 

(Daddario) 

(Karth) 

(Daddario) 

- Will we dispose of it (the orbiting vehicle) when finished? 

- Why can't you use one vehicle for both MOL and AAP? 

- Congress is concerned over the problem of using hardware 

and activities when the original mission is complete (Daddario -

referring to use of Apollo hardware for AAP). 

- We (in Congress) can't get away from the problem of why 

we can't use one vehicle (MOL vs AAP) or the other, but there is no. 

question that you people (USAF) need your program (Daddario) 

- I have no problem supporting both programs; but we work 

as a committee and we must face up to people who don't understand the 

difference. (Daddario) 

- We understand, %.,It we wilt.,e up against the question of 

"Why all the dollars for spe when we need hous:i_ag." (Miller) 

- You will get the ,,upport for your program (MOL) but it 

may be at the expense of NAS' (Daddario) 

- Excellent briefi.1g. -

7:t appeared that all questions direced to MOL were answered to 

the :atisfaction of the Congressmen. Ge,:a:al Stewart's and Dr. Yarymovych's ' 

res31Ases to questions relating to MOL vs AAP equipments conveyed the 

following points: 

- NASA use of MCI has been studied at length. 

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- NASA possibly could use MOL for certain experiments, but 

. the overall NASA objectives are directed to long on-orbit life, docking, 

rendezvous, etc, the MOL is not. 

MOL vehicles less camera and associated items could be 

made available to NASA in the 72 time period. 

- NASA space exploration is useful to the nation and future 

space programs. 

In his concluding remarks, General Stewart commented that follow-on 

versions of MOL would probably look very similar to the present configuration except for the addition of an on-board read-out capability and 

extended on-orbit vehicle life (45-60 days). General Stewart also 

stated that MOL would be employed in a mix with unmanned satellite 

reconnaissance vehicles to achieve the correct balance between very 

high resolution photography and lesser resolutions appropriate to 

intelligence needs. He explained that there is no requirement to view 

all targets at 1111 resolution. 

General Stewart indicated he would brief Mr. Teague and Mr. Hechler 

at their early convenience. In a side discussion with Mr. Daddario, 

Mr. Miller wondered if it were desirable and practical to brief a few 

more of their "bright, young" committee members on MOL. 

In summary, the briefing appeared to achieve the results desired 

and the Congressmen seemed to be both appreciative and impressed. 

RALPH . 

• 

Chief, 2rogra;- :And Policies Div, 

SAFSL 

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