National Aeronautics and Space Administration Authorization Act of 2008

Floor Speech

I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I rise in support of the underlying bill. And I commend the gentlelady from Florida for her inspiring words.

This bill is on the right track by extending shuttle operations, giving NASA the option to extend shuttle operations beyond 2010. Taking away the artificial 2010 deadline and allowing NASA to finish all the flights currently on the manifest will give NASA more flexibility and provide needed transportation to the International Space Station and help lessen the severity of the gap.

However, I want to underscore that this bill does not fix the problem established by this administration. And my hope is that the next administration and the next Congress will fix this problem of putting NASA and the United States in a situation where we will be dependent on the Russians to put our astronauts into space for possibly longer than 5 years.

The Government Accountability Office recently testified before a congressional committee indicating that there are a number of technological challenges facing the Constellation program, the program to replace the shuttle, and that delays in the program could occur and could lengthen this gap beyond the 4 1/2 to 5 years that it currently is.

History has shown time and time again that complex technological problems often lead to delays, and that attempts at closing gaps can often be frustrated. Therefore, it is my opinion that the only way to assure that we do not get a lengthening of the gap, and the only way to make sure that we eliminate this gap is to extend shuttle operations.

Now, I was very disappointed in the Statement of Administration Policy on this bill that whoever was responsible for drafting this thing, they chose to dig up the canard that it is unsafe to extend shuttle operations beyond 2010. The truth is that the last shuttle that flies in 2010 will be the same shuttle that flies in 2011 if we extend shuttle operations. And if we are to argue that it is unsafe to fly the shuttle beyond 2010, you could just as easily argue that it's unsafe to fly it today. The truth is, after the improvements that have been made after the Columbia and the Challenger disasters, the shuttle that flies today is the safest shuttle that we have ever flown. And yes, going into outer space has its risks, but we choose to do so because we are a Nation of explorers, and we feel that the risks are justified for the benefits of space exploration.

I just also want to point out that relying on the Soyuz vehicle--supposedly because it's safer, as the administration is implying in their statement--is not exactly correct. We just recently saw a situation where the returning Soyuz vehicle was thrown off course into a dangerous ballistic reentry, exposing the astronauts on board, including a female astronaut, Peggy Whitson, to very dangerous G forces.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

This bill is a step in the right direction. It gives NASA the ability to extend shuttle operations. And I want to just point out, there is a very important scientific mission, the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer mission. We spent $1.5 billion building that piece of machinery, and NASA's current plan is to leave it on the ground. This bill correctly calls for launching that mission, and it is the right thing to do. To spend all that money to build that thing and then to never launch it is just wrong.

However, I do want to underscore that the future Congress and the next administration is going to have to wrestle with the issue of getting the funding in the appropriation process. But I just want to say that, based on current economic growth, over the next 5 to 7 years 1 trillion additional dollars is going to come into this U.S. Treasury.

This is a matter of priorities. The American people support our space program. It's the right thing to do to keep the shuttle flying beyond 2010.

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