More details about the "young attorney" who had added "a kind of universal action clause" that allowed NASA to "sort-of invest" in SpaceX: > I have to share wi

More details about the "young attorney" who had added "a kind of universal action clause" that allowed NASA to "sort-of invest" in SpaceX: > I have to share with you, as a sort of sideline, do you know where our Other Transaction Authority comes from? The guy who wrote the [National Aeronautics and] Space Act, who was just incredible, was a very young guy. This was back in 1957, ’58. [Paul G.] Dembling. I had the opportunity a couple of times to talk to him, and he told a story which I’m sure is true. He was a young attorney and he’d only been practicing for a few years. The Russians had launched Sputnik [in 1957], and there was panic in America. We did have a military space agency, but President [Dwight D.] Eisenhower said, “I need a civil space agency.” > Mr. Dembling was tasked with writing the Space Act, and he sat down and did a lot of research and he wrote it. He told me, “I did the best job I could. I read everything, but I knew in the final analysis there might have been something I missed. So I sat down and I said, ‘Well, how can I cover that?’ I can cover that by saying, ‘And NASA can do any other agreement, arrangement, whatever it needs to do to fulfill its mission.’” That became the Other Transaction Authority. You know how Sherwin-Williams [Company] paint covers the world? He basically said, “If I’ve forgotten something, use this.” > … He said, “I sat there, and I thought I probably missed something. Now, what can I put in that will let them do whatever they need to do?” Back then, in ’58, the whole nation was roiled. It was still the Cold War, the Russians had a Sputnik, we could hear it, beep-beep-beeping. Those who were alive at that time can remember being taught to get under our little school desks and hunker down, like that was going to protect you from an atomic weapon. In any event, that was the climate of fear in the country, so getting a civil space agency stood up and running was very important. Paul came up with the Other Transaction Authority stuff. Who knew, right? Who knew? http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/history/oral_histories/C3PO/WholleyMC/WholleyMC_3-19-13.htm http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/history/oral_histories/C3PO/WholleyM...