On August 2,1958, meanwhile, Dr. Detlev Bronk, president of the
National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council,11 had
formally announced the format ion 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
technolog