Special Committee On Space Technology
On 21 November 1957, Hugh Dryden, NACA’s director, established the Special Committee on Space Technology. The committee, also called the Stever Committee after its chairman, Guyford Stever, was a special steering committee that was formed with the mandate to coordinate various branches of the federal government, private companies as well as universities within the United States with NACA's objectives and also harness their expertise in order to develop a space program.
Remarkably, Hendrik Wade Bode, the man who helped develop automatic radar-controlled artillery that brought down the German V-1 flying bombs over London during World War II, was actually serving in the same committee and sitting at the same table as Wernher von Braun who was head of the team which developed the V-2, the other weapon that terrorized London.
Read more about this topic: National Advisory Committee For Aeronautics
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