[Senate Hearing 108-1025]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
S. Hrg. 108-1025
THE PRESIDENT'S NEW VISION OF SPACE
=======================================================================
FIELD HEARING
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY,
AND SPACE
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE,
SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED EIGHTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
__________
FEBRUARY 18, 2004
__________
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SENATE COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION
ONE HUNDRED EIGHTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
JOHN McCAIN, Arizona, Chairman
TED STEVENS, Alaska ERNEST F. HOLLINGS, South
CONRAD BURNS, Montana Carolina, Ranking
TRENT LOTT, Mississippi DANIEL K. INOUYE, Hawaii
KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON, Texas JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER IV, West
OLYMPIA J. SNOWE, Maine Virginia
SAM BROWNBACK, Kansas JOHN F. KERRY, Massachusetts
GORDON H. SMITH, Oregon JOHN B. BREAUX, Louisiana
PETER G. FITZGERALD, Illinois BYRON L. DORGAN, North Dakota
JOHN ENSIGN, Nevada RON WYDEN, Oregon
GEORGE ALLEN, Virginia BARBARA BOXER, California
JOHN E. SUNUNU, New Hampshire BILL NELSON, Florida
MARIA CANTWELL, Washington
FRANK R. LAUTENBERG, New Jersey
Jeanne Bumpus, Republican Staff Director and General Counsel
Robert W. Chamberlin, Republican Chief Counsel
Kevin D. Kayes, Democratic Staff Director and Chief Counsel
Gregg Elias, Democratic General Counsel
------
SUBCOMMITTEE ON SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND SPACE
SAM BROWNBACK, Kansas, Chairman
TED STEVENS, Alaska JOHN B. BREAUX, Louisiana, Ranking
CONRAD BURNS, Montana JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER IV, West
TRENT LOTT, Mississippi Virginia
KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON, Texas JOHN F. KERRY, Massachusetts
JOHN ENSIGN, Nevada BYRON L. DORGAN, North Dakota
GEORGE ALLEN, Virginia RON WYDEN, Oregon
JOHN E. SUNUNU, New Hampshire BILL NELSON, Florida
FRANK R. LAUTENBERG, New Jersey
C O N T E N T S
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Page
Hearing held on February 18, 2004................................ 1
Statement of Senator Brownback................................... 1
Prepared statement........................................... 2
Witnesses
Chafer, Charles M., President, Team Encounter, LLC............... 34
Prepared statement........................................... 37
Cornyn, Hon. John, U.S. Senator from Texas....................... 3
DeLay, Hon. Tom, Congressman from Texas.......................... 4
Lorsch, Robert H., President, The RHL Group, Inc................. 39
Prepared statement........................................... 42
Mitchell, William F., President, Altair Development Corporation
and Chief Executive Officer, NEO Safety International.......... 79
Prepared statement........................................... 81
Readdy, William, Associate Administrator for Space Flight,
National Aeronautics and Space Administration; accompanied by
Dr. Mary Kicza, Associate Administrator for Biological and
Physical Research; Retired U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Craig
Steidle, Associate Administrator for Exploration Systems; and
General Jeff Howell, Administrator of the Johnson Space Flight
Center......................................................... 8
Prepared statement........................................... 10
Stadd, Courtney A., President, Capitol Solutions................. 86
Prepared statement........................................... 89
THE PRESIDENT'S NEW VISION OF SPACE
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WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2004
U.S. Senate,
Subcommittee on Science, Technology, and Space,
Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation,
Nassau Bay, TX.
The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 9:30 a.m. in
Council Chambers, Nassau Bay City Hall, Hon. Sam Brownback,
Chairman of the Committee, presiding.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. SAM BROWNBACK,
U.S. SENATOR FROM KANSAS:
Senator Brownback. I call the hearing to order; I thank you
all for being out this morning. My name is Sam Brownback and I
chair the Senate Subcommittee for Science, Space, and
Technology. This is a field hearing of the U.S. Senate and the
Subcommittee regarding space exploration and going to the Moon
and beyond. I particularly wanted to have this hearing in
Houston, given its connection, its guidance and the work that's
going to be involved to get this exciting mission going.
I'm delighted to be joined by two Texans, both of whom will
be giving an opening statement, who are enormously supportive
of the space program and guiding it. Their vision has helped to
get us to this point and is going to carry it on forward. We'll
be having witnesses, and I understand both of them have further
schedules as well. So, they may have to depart sometime before
the full hearing is over.
On January 14, President Bush gave one of the most
important speeches a president can give. He set our Nation once
again on a course to the future. This future will see American
men and women return to the Moon for extended periods of time
and journey to the planet of Mars. This initiative is
definitely a big boost to NASA, and its dedicated men and
women, but it's much more than that. It is for the next
generation of Americans. President Bush wants a new generation
of Americans to have an unlimited future, a future in which
space exploration will play a key role.
My generation was inspired by Americans walking on the Moon
and flying in space. We were inspired to study science and
engineering and we put those talents to great use in building
America's economy to the envy of the world. The new generation
of young Americans watches countless movies and television
shows featuring humans working and living on other worlds,
President Bush has challenged them to make these visions real,
and they will.
President Bush's space initiative will involve new NASA
programs that will be much more than just government work. It
will unite our vast private sector's talents and resources to
lead the way to space, generating great new wealth and
capability. In the next few months, the private sector will be
flying ordinary Americans to space for the first time.
In a few months, completely privately-financed rockets will
blast new, low-cost satellites into orbit. These satellites
will contribute a new dimension to our pressing national
security problems and we'll hear some of their ideas today.
America is not alone in understanding the promise of space
exploration; the first in a series of European missions to the
Moon is currently underway (more will soon follow from India,
Japan and China). These nations have all announced their intent
to place humans on other worlds, beginning with the Moon. Some
of these nations are allies but they are all our economic
competitors. They know that their space exploration will
stimulate their new generations to develop both technical and
ultimately economically powerful new capacities.
It has been almost 30 years since Americans last walked on
another world, 30 years. Much has changed; new technologies and
ideas have emerged. Some have criticized the exploration effort
as unaffordable and extravagant, but this is manifestly untrue.
Most of the Government resources needed for human exploration
of the Moon and Mars will come from reorienting our priorities
within NASA. More significantly, though, other resources will
come from American entrepreneurs who will reap the rewards of
their space investments.
I'm proud to chair the Senate Subcommittee on Science,
Technology, and Space and I'm proud to be here in Houston today
where America's past journeys to other worlds were led and
where our future journeys will be led as well.
Your work will continue to inspire new generations. It's
America's destiny to lead the world in science, technology,
space, and economic development, as well as to lead humanity to
other worlds. It's an exciting and bold mission.
I'm delighted to be joined by my colleague in the Senate,
John Cornyn and I have to say, ``Thank you, Texas,'' for
sending us such a great Senator. I have already gotten to know
him well in the period of time he's been in the Senate and
although he's new, he is not operating as somebody new. He is
doing a fabulous job. You should be very pleased with your new
Senator.
[The prepared statement of Senator Brownback follows:]
Prepared Statement of Hon. Sam Brownback, U.S. Senator from Kansas
On January 14, President Bush gave one of the most important
speeches a President can give. He set our Nation once again on a course
to the future. This future will see American men and women return to
the moon for extended periods and journey to the planet Mars.
This initiative is a big boost to NASA and its dedicated men and
women to be sure. But it is much more than that. It is for our next
generation of Americans. President Bush wants a new generation of
Americans to have an unlimited future--a future in which space
exploration will play a key role. My engineering. And we put those
talents to great use in building America's economy to the envy of the
world. Our new generation of young Americans watches countless movies
and television shows featuring humans working and living on other
worlds. Now President Bush has challenged them to make these visions
real. And they will!
President Bush's space initiative will involve new NASA programs.
But it will be much more than just Government work. It will ignite our
vast private sector's talent and resources to lead the way in space--
generating great new wealth and capability. In a few months this
private sector will fly ordinary Americans in space for the first time.
In a few months wholly privately-financed rockets will blast new low
cost satellites into orbit. These satellites will contribute a new
dimension to our pressing national security problems. We will hear some
of these ideas today.
America is not alone in understanding the promise of space
exploration. Even now the first in a series of European missions to the
moon is underway. More will soon follow from India, Japan and China.
These nations have all announced their intent to place humans on other
worlds beginning with the moon. Some of these nations are allies. But
they are all our economic competitors. They know that their space
exploration will stimulate their new generations to develop technical
and ultimately economically powerful new capabilities.
It has been almost 30 years since Americans last walked on another
world. Much has changed. New technologies abound. New ideas have
emerged. Some have criticized the exploration effort as unaffordable
and extravagant. This is manifestly untrue. Most of the Government
resources needed for human exploration of the Moon and Mars will come
from re-orienting our priorities within NASA. More significantly
though, other resources will come from the American entrepreneurs who
will reap the rewards of their space investments.
I am proud to chair the Senate Subcommittee on Science, Technology,
and Space. I'm proud to be here today in Houston--where America's past
journeys to other worlds were led and where our future journeys will
begin. Your work will continue to inspire our new generations. It is
America's destiny to lead--to lead the world in science, technology and
space, to lead in economic development and to lead humanity to other
worlds.
Senator Brownback. John, thank you for joining me this
morning.
STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN CORNYN,
U.S. SENATOR FROM TEXAS
Senator Cornyn. Good, I'm glad to have you here.
And Senator Brownback, I'd like to welcome you and NASA
Associate Administrator Readdy, on behalf of myself and Senator
Kay Bailey Hutchison, who I know regrets she's not able to be
here today, and I thank you for the opportunity to say a few
words this morning.
Of course, it's always an honor to be with my friend and
the Johnson Space Center's best friend in the House of
Representatives, the Majority Leader of the House of
Representatives Tom DeLay. Tom, always good to be with you.
As a Senator representing Texas, I'm immensely proud of the
dedicated men and women working at the Johnson Space Center,
which has been the home of America's manned space flight for
more than 40 years. In Houston working at NASA is more than a
job, it's a way of life dedicated to expanding our body of
knowledge and the way of life through human space exploration.
On January 14, as Senator Brownback has already noted, the
President unveiled a vision for our space program that is
worthy of our great Nation, daring, innovative and
revolutionary. The United States was settled by pioneers who
were determined and undaunted by any obstacle--NASA and the
private companies supporting our space program are the modern
manifestation of this pioneering spirit. NASA, and especially
the men and women who work at the Johnson Space Center, face
new and exciting challenges.
In the near term we must return the space shuttle to
flight, consistent with updated safety precautions, since the
shuttle is a critical link in the President's plans for the
future. The shuttle will transport the remaining components to
complete the international space station. The space station
will serve as a research center to increase our understanding
of long-term exposure to space and as a springboard to the Moon
and eventually to Mars. The President clearly recognized what
many in this room know to be true--the country, NASA and the
Johnson Space Center need a new vision.
His new vision will reinvigorate the space program and
capture the public's imagination. There has been much
discussion recently about the economy, other countries
competing for jobs in this country, whether it's manufacturing,
computer programming and business support functions. Some
advocate trade barriers and other protectionist measures.
Instead, I believe we must continue to strive for excellence to
make sure the United States will always be the world's
technological leader.
As a re-energized NASA and contract community can play a
critical role in the larger American economy to maintain our
position as technological leaders, a daring and challenging
space program will attract the best and brightest by
encouraging more American students to study engineering,
computer programming and the sciences. NASA can serve as the
intellectual catalyst for development of a new generation of
technology, much like previous NASA innovations have led to the
development of things that we take for granted today like
global positioning systems and CAT scan equipment.
Mr. Chairman, I want to express my appreciation for the
opportunity to be with you here today and, again, welcome you.
In addition, I can assure you that Senator Hutchison and I, on
behalf of the Senate and Congressman DeLay, Majority Leader
DeLay, will do everything we can to work with you to accomplish
this important vision. Thanks again for being here.
Senator Brownback. Thank you, Senator Cornyn. I appreciate
that, and I talked with Senator Hutchison when we were setting
this hearing up and she wanted to be here, but could not
because of other commitments. She's on the Commerce Committee
and is a strong supporter of the space program and NASA.
You have no better supporter in all of Washington than Tom
DeLay. I remember Tom talking about a permanent mission,
permanent establishment and colonies on the Moon when most
people kind of thought of that as a pretty wild idea, Tom. At
the time I remember myself thinking twice or more about that,
yet, knowing your ability. You've been right on a lot of these
things early on and you're right on this one, too.
And so, I'm delighted to have Tom DeLay here as the House
Majority Leader, but also, and more importantly, as a key and
strong supporter of the NASA program and space exploration.
STATEMENT OF HON. TOM DeLAY,
CONGRESSMAN FROM TEXAS
Mr. DeLay. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I am really thrilled that you're here. Your timing is
absolutely perfect. This is the right time to be here to
discuss the future of space and I'm glad to be here with my
colleague and my Senator John Cornyn and I'm glad to--and I
know Kay Bailey Hutchison is paying attention to this issue as
well as to this hearing. John Cornyn has done an incredible job
already in a very short period of time, as if he was a veteran.
He hit the ground running when he--when he entered the Senate
and has distinguished himself in a very short period of time.
So, it's great to be with you, Senator.
I am really honored to be here today to speak to this body
and the Subcommittee on the President's bold vision for NASA.
Not only for the privilege of testifying before the upper body
but also the privilege of welcoming the Subcommittee to my own
backyard and because, Senators, the men and women you will meet
during your stay here, the space community of the Bay Area-
Houston, many of whom are my own constituents, are among the
finest minds, the finest public servants and the finest people
I have ever known. These are the people who won the space race,
who put a man on the Moon, who designed and operate the
International Space Station and who fly the only reusable
launch vehicle, the space shuttle. They're the people who took
mankind into space and, Mr. Chairman, they're the people who
will take us there again.
The success of NASA's Mars rovers, the Spirit and
Opportunity, has captured the imagination of our Nation and of
our world. Since the Spirit rover landed on the surface of Mars
earlier this year, NASA's website has received almost 6 billion
hits. In less than 2 months, NASA has experienced more Internet
traffic than any Federal Government website has ever had in a
whole year. So, lest we have doubts, mankind's fascination with
space and the red planet, in particular, is alive and is well.
And as such, the timing is perfect. After more than two
decades of brilliant ingenuity on the space station and the
space shuttle, for the President's plan to reinvigorate human
space flight program, first to return us to the Moon and,
ultimately, to send a manned mission to Mars. Having lived in
this area most of my life and having represented many in the
Johnson Space Center community for years, the President's
speech last month is exactly what I believe NASA has needed for
a long time and that's a new vision.
The vision is bold and dramatic, thrilling, really, when
you think about the risks and the rewards involved, but it's
also realistic and it's practical. The pivot toward the Moon
and Mars can't be made overnight and the President's vision
accounts for the necessary transfer of time, energy and
resources into the new project. The new vision lays out a
multi-track program to focus research, planning and exploration
on new goals.
The first step, returning the space shuttle to flight as
soon as possible, with eye toward completing assembly on the
International Space Station can begin soon. The shuttle and the
station are vital components of NASA and vital components of
the President's vision. They represent the springboard that
will vault us into this new era of exploration.
And as the space station is completed, NASA will focus its
station research on bioastronautics, the impact of space travel
on the human body. Questions about prolonged human exposure to
radiation and microgravity are pivotal to human survival on the
Moon and during the long trip to Mars. And these questions
can't be answered without the laboratories of the space station
and when they are answered, the benefits will be reaped here on
Earth as much as they are in outer space.
The Senator from Texas has already talked about all the
benefits that we reap from the space program and the shuttle,
like the programmable pacemaker, the MRI, the portable X-ray
machine and the automatic insulin pump before them. Solutions
to problems of prolonged space travel will answer medical
questions that face doctors and patients back here on terra
firma. Exploration, by its very nature, deals in new territory.
Just as seafarers long ago developed sextants and
astrolabes, which, ultimately, served humanity for centuries,
so, too, has NASA developed technologies that seem limited in
scope but which now are integral parts of modern life. In
addition to medical breakthroughs, NASA's work over the years
has introduced the world to touchtone telephony, cellular
phones and the unquantifiable communications and national
security benefits of satellite technology. The list goes on and
on.
And I'm not insensitive to the concerns many have about
this ambitious new vision in light of the current fiscal
situation, but I believe money spent responsibly on focused,
goal-oriented space exploration like the President has outlined
is an investment of inestimable value.
Technological innovations, like those we can expect to reap
from such exploration, will lead to greater economic strength
and military security here at home; and to my mind, space
exploration, like nautical exploration centuries ago, is
inseparable from economic strength and military security. NASA
has the experience and the expertise to do this, Mr. Chairman.
And if you ask them, I'd bet most of the folks here at the
Johnson Space Center have been waiting for a long time to take
on the challenge that President Bush has issued.
I firmly hope those of us in Congress will give them the
support they need to get the job done. It will be tough
convincing our colleagues how vitally important this mission
is. In addition to its direct benefits to our collective
knowledge, advances in security, healthcare and communication
technology, America's mission to Mars will inspire a generation
of children to become scientists and engineers and, more
fundamentally, to dare to dream.
Thanks to the President we have an opportunity to do great
things, Mr. Chairman; and I look forward to working with you
and the Senate to educate and convince our colleagues both in
the House and the Senate of our need to seize this opportunity.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for being in the Bay Area/
Houston area.
Senator Brownback. Thank you, Tom. I appreciate it and your
testimony.
Mr. Readdy, we want to bring you up to be the first panel.
Mr. William Readdy, Associate Administrator for Space Flight
National Aeronautics Space Administration out of Washington. As
I noted to you earlier, both Senator Cornyn and Majority Leader
DeLay may have to leave at some time during the hearing with
other commitments, but I'm very appreciative to both the
gentlemen for being here for the hearing.
Mr. DeLay. I appreciate that, Mr. Chairman. I might say
I've already heard Mr. Readdy.
Senator Brownback. Thanks for joining us. I appreciate it.
And I understand the Johnson Space Center director is here,
General Howell.
General Howell. Yes, sir.
Senator Brownback. Sir, thank you very much for allowing us
to hold this hearing here.
General Howell. We're delighted you're here, sir. On behalf
of our 10,000 employees and the wonderful people here who
support us, we just want to welcome you, say we're delighted
you're here and we're very excited about carrying out the
President's vision in the days ahead.
Senator Brownback. Thank you. I've been looking forward to
this hearing for a while because I wanted to find out from the
people here what they were viewing and looking at. Just one
additional comment as we're getting y'all settled--and Tom
DeLay mentioned this--regarding the inspiration for the next
generation. To me, this is the incredible and tangible value of
what this mission's about and I mean both terms, incredible and
intangible value.
One short vignette. I was a White House fellow about 12
years ago and one of the guys I was a fellow with went through
the naval academy. The reason he went through the Naval Academy
was because he saw these astronauts flying and going to the
Moon when he was a much younger man, and said to his dad: ``I
want to be an astronaut.''
His dad said ``Well, if you want to be an astronaut, you've
got to go to the Naval Academy. Most of these guys are Naval
Academy.''
Now, General Howell, I recognize that probably doesn't
apply to you. Which academy did you go to?
General Howell. I'm a graduate of the University of Texas,
sir.
Senator Brownback. Oh, OK.
General Howell. I did not qualify to be an astronaut.
Senator Brownback. That would be the ``Longhorn Academy.''
The reason I say this is because he went to the Naval
Academy to be an astronaut. He ended up being the captain of an
aircraft carrier for us, which is the largest asset that we
have in the U.S. military and he's in charge of it. He wouldn't
have been there but for the dream of space. And how many
millions of children around the world are inspired because
we're going there? To me, that's the thing that I so want us to
do--to inspire that 12-year-old boy in Minneapolis, Kansas,
that's looking at this and saying ``I want to go there, I'm
going to study science and engineering and I'm going to go to
the academy. I'm going to push myself because we're going
there.'' This is an incredible value.
So, I'm delighted that you're all here. Mr. Readdy, I just
had you down as testifying. I'm happy to have the whole group
or you may want to introduce your team and then divvy it up any
way you'd like.
But thank you for coming here and the floor is yours.
STATEMENT OF WILLIAM READDY, ASSOCIATE
ADMINISTRATOR FOR SPACE FLIGHT, NATIONAL
AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION; ACCOMPANIED BY DR. MARY
KICZA, ASSOCIATE ADMINISTRATOR FOR
BIOLOGICAL AND PHYSICAL RESEARCH; RETIRED U.S. NAVY
REAR ADMIRAL CRAIG STEIDLE, ASSOCIATE ADMINISTRATOR
FOR EXPLORATION SYSTEMS; AND GENERAL JEFF HOWELL,
ADMINISTRATOR OF THE JOHNSON SPACE FLIGHT CENTER
Mr. Readdy. Mr. Chairman, thank you.
I think if you were to conduct your straw poll here today,
the excitement in this room and certainly here at the Johnson
Space Flight Center and all of NASA is palpable. I had a chance
to do my own straw poll at home with my kids, Sean, Peter and
Maureen and they are that next generation of explorers. I think
there are stories like that throughout this room. This is an
exciting and bold new vision for space exploration that is
guaranteed to excite the next generation.
With me today, I have Mary Kicza. She's in charge of
biological and physical research, Associate Administrator at
NASA; General Howell, the director of the Johnson Space Flight
Center; and Admiral Craig Steidle, who is newly on board to
head up our exploration initiative.
Senator Brownback. OK. Head up this exploration initiative?
Mr. Readdy. Correct.
Admiral Steidle. Certainly. Thank you.
Mr. Readdy. I have a written statement for the record; and
in the interest of time, I'll just go ahead and summarize it.
Senator Brownback. Your written statement will be placed in
the record.
Mr. Readdy. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The President has presented a bold, new, forward-thinking,
practical vision, and a responsible vision in his renewed
spirit of discovery. Pursuing that vision on behalf of the
American public, NASA will explore answers to fundamental
questions of importance to science and society, develop
revolutionary technologies and capabilities for the future
while maintaining good stewardship of the taxpayer's dollars.
The President's commission on the implementation of U.S.
space exploration policy, led by former secretary of defense
and secretary of the Air Force Peter Aldridge, began its
deliberations last week and will report on the implementation
strategies for the vision in the coming months; this policy's a
product of months of extensive and careful deliberations. The
importance of these deliberations increased with the findings
of the Columbia Accident Investigation board released last
August.
These deliberations also form the basis for formulating the
President's Fiscal Year 2005 budget request for NASA of $16.2
billion, representing an increase of 5.6 percent over the
previous year. The new U.S. space exploration policy's
fundamental goal is to advance scientific, national security,
and economic interest through a robust space program. In
support of this goal NASA will implement a sustained,
achievable and affordable human space flight program that calls
for the return of the space shuttle to flight as soon as safely
feasible, in order to complete the assembly of International
Space Station, a return to the Moon by the year 2020 in
preparation for human exploration of Mars and other
destinations.
We think this will promote international and commercial
participation in these interests and further U.S. scientific,
security and economic benefits. NASA will plan and implement an
integrated, long-term robotic and human exploration program
measured by milestones and executed on the basis of available
resources, using our accumulated experience and technology as
they become ready.
Space shuttle, our return to flight as soon as practicable.
I was down at Galveston the last 2 days for the shuttle summit,
where we're refocusing what was formerly the service life
extension program with nearer term objectives of return to
flight and assembly of International Space Station--to fulfill
our international commitments and build a premier research
platform in the space that will allow us to pursue our
exploration objectives. We will determine in the next year how
best to optimize the use of the space shuttle fleet to do that
assembly and assure for the remainder of its life that that
investment is sound and focused on safety, reliability and
maintainability during this period.
International Space Station's goals will be refocused on
the human condition and understanding the fundamental
biological challenges to enable astronauts to survive for long-
duration missions in space. The budget includes $1.9 billion
for ISS assembly; and while we must work diligently to return
safely to flight, we must not forget that orbiting the Earth
right this minute on board that International Space Station are
Mike Foale and Alexander Kaleri.
Tomorrow they'll be conducting the tests on board with
their Arlon space suits to facilitate a space walk next week to
inspect the space station and ready it for the autonomous
transfer vehicle's arrival sometime next year.
Achieving a full-time human presence on board International
Space Station offers us a tremendous opportunity to study human
survival in a hostile environment in space and to assess how to
overcome the technological hurdles of increased duration space
flight. The Space Station plays a key role in preparing us for
a human journey into the solar system, first to the Moon and
then to Mars.
New Space transportation capabilities, Project
Constellation is a new crew exploration vehicle and Admiral
Craig Steidle will be in charge of that effort; to provide crew
transportation for exploration missions beyond lower orbit.
$428 million is budgeted for this project with an initial
unpiloted test flight planned as early as 2008.
Also, we intend to undertake lunar exploration and
demonstrate abilities that enable to sustain human and robotic
exploration of the Moon, Mars, and other destinations within
the solar system. The budget provides $70 million for robotic
lunar test beds and increases to $420 in Fiscal Year 2009.
Exploration to Mars has, I think, over 6 billion web hits
thus far of which over 50 million are individual web addresses
that include the likes of AOL, which counts as a single address
where there are millions of subscribers. The interest in this,
as we've looked at the demographics, includes, obviously, the
academic, scientific community; but, more importantly, fully
half are concerned citizens, interested citizens and children
that are being inspired by the robotic exploration that's
ongoing right now.
Enabling technologies, Project Prometheus--that's a nuclear
propulsion power generation--budget provides $438 million for
that and investments in advanced human and robotic technology
systems. We also have included incentives for private
enterprise. There's $10 million in this year's budget to
purchase launch services from emerging launch vehicle
providers.
There's a commitment to obtain commercial services in the
order of $140 million to support International Space Station,
as we phaseout the space shuttle. That, plus we intend to honor
our commitments elsewhere within NASA and our other important
missions and institutional goals. To successfully execute our
exploration vision, NASA will refocus its organization, create
new offices--Admiral Steidle is doing that as we speak--and
realign ongoing programs to further support our exploration
agenda.
Craig Steidle is with me today, as is Mary Kicza. I'd like
to sum up by stating as the President stated in his speech,
we're embarking on a journey not a race. We begin this journey
of exploration and discovery knowing that many years of hard
work and sustained effort will be required so that we can look
forward to achieving concrete results in the near term. The
vision makes the needed decisions for long-term U.S. space
leadership, provides an exciting step of major milestones for
human and robotic missions and invites new ideas and
innovations for accomplishing this bold new vision.
It will provide an opportunity for new generations of
Americans to explore, innovate, discover and reach our Nation
in ways that today are unimaginable. Fortune favors the bold.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Readdy follows:]
Prepared Statement of William Readdy, Associate Administrator for Space
Flight, National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Mr. Chairman, thank you for this opportunity to join you in the
beautiful state of Texas to discuss the President's vision for U.S.
Space Exploration and NASA's plans for implementing this vision. I am
accompanied today by two of my NASA colleagues, Dr. Mary Kicza,
Associate Administrator for Biological and Physical Research, and
Retired U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Craig Steidle, Associate Administrator
for Exploration Systems.
On January 14, the President visited NASA Headquarters and
announced his Vision for U.S. Space Exploration. In his address, the
President presented a vision that is bold and forward-thinking, yet
practical and responsible--one that explores answers to longstanding
questions of importance to science and society and will develop
revolutionary technologies and capabilities for the future, while
maintaining good stewardship of taxpayer dollars.
The vision forms the basis of the new U.S. space exploration
policy, ``A Renewed Spirit of Discovery,'' a copy of which is appended
to this testimony as Enclosure 1. This policy is the product of months
of extensive and careful deliberation. The importance of these
deliberations increased with the findings of the Columbia Accident
Investigation Board, which emphasized the importance of setting clear,
long-term goals for the Nation's human space flight program. Inputs
from Members of this Committee and other Members of Congress informed
the Administration's deliberations. Many others contributed ideas for
the future of the space program. These deliberations were also the
basis for formulating the President's FY 2005 Budget request for NASA.
A commission will advise NASA on specific issues for implementation of
the policy's goals within four months.
Today, I will summarize the President's FY 2005 budget request for
NASA, discuss the goals set forth in the new U.S. space exploration
policy, walk you through the major implementation elements and their
associated budget details, explain the implications of this directive
for NASA's organization, and describe what the Nation's future in
exploration and discovery will look like in the coming years.
FY 2005 Budget Summary
The President's FY 2005 Budget request for NASA is $16.244 billion,
a 5.6 percent increase over FY 2004, as reflected in Enclosure 2. The
NASA budget request is designed with four key goals in mind:
Compelling--The budget fully supports the U.S. Vision for Space
Exploration, and provides for ongoing NASA mission priorities
such as Aeronautics and Earth Science.
Affordable--The budget is fiscally responsible and consistent
with the Administration's goal of cutting the Federal deficit
in half within the next 5 years. NASA's FY 2005 budget will
increase by $1 billion over 5 years, when compared with the
President's FY 2004 plan; that is an increase of approximately
5 percent per year over each of the next 3 years and
approximately 1 percent for each of the following 2 years.
Achievable--The budget strategy supporting the vision will not
require large balloon payments by future Congresses and
Administrations. Unlike previous major civil space initiatives,
this approach is intentionally flexible, with investments in
sustainable exploration approaches to maintain affordability.
After FY 2009, the budget projects that the exploration vision
can be implemented within a NASA budget that keeps pace with
inflation.
Focused--The budget begins the alignment of NASA's program
structure with the exploration vision. We now have the needed
compass from which to evaluate our programs and make the needed
tough decisions.
Vision Goals
The fundamental goal of this new policy is to advance U.S.
scientific, security, and economic interests through a robust space
exploration program. In support of this goal, NASA will:
Implement a sustained and affordable human and robotic
program to explore the Solar System and beyond;
Extend human presence across the Solar System, starting with
a human return to the Moon by the year 2020, in preparation for
human exploration of Mars and other destinations;
Develop the innovative technologies, knowledge, and
infrastructures both to explore and to support decisions about
destinations for future human exploration; and
Promote international and commercial participation in
exploration to further U.S. scientific, security, and economic
interests.
Implementation Elements and Budget Highlights
To achieve these goals, NASA will plan and implement an integrated,
long-term robotic and human exploration program, structured with
measurable milestones and executed on the basis of available resources,
accumulated experience, and technology readiness. The policy envisions
the following major implementation elements:
Space Shuttle--NASA will return the Space Shuttle to flight as soon
as practical, based on the recommendations of the Columbia Accident
Investigation Board. The budget includes $4.3 billion for the Space
Shuttle, a 9 percent increase above FY 2004. Included in this total is
an estimated $238 million for Return to Flight (RTF) activities in FY
2005. The RTF activities are under evaluation to confirm the estimated
cost and associated out year phasing. The focus of the Space Shuttle
will be finishing assembly of the International Space Station (ISS).
With its job done, the Space Shuttle will be phased out when assembly
of the ISS is complete, planned for the end of the decade. NASA will
determine over the next year how best to address the issues associated
with the safe retirement of the Space Shuttle fleet.
International Space Station--NASA plans to complete assembly of the
International Space Station (ISS) by the end of the decade, including
those U.S. components that will ensure our capability to conduct
research in support of the new U.S. space exploration goals and those
planned and provided by foreign partners. The budget provides $1.9
billion for ISS assembly and operations, a 24 percent increase above FY
2004. This increase forward funds $100 million in reserves to partially
restore planned near-term reserve levels following the $200 million
Congressional cut to Space Station in FY 2004 and provides $140 million
in new funding for transportation services to the Space Station. We
will separate, to the maximum extent practical, crew and cargo
transportation for both ISS and exploration missions. NASA will acquire
ISS crew transport as required and cargo transportation as soon as
practical and affordable. NASA envisions that commercial and/or foreign
capabilities will provide these services.
NASA anticipates that any adjustments in existing ISS Partner
responsibilities as a result of the new U.S. space exploration policy
can be accommodated within the existing ISS agreements. The ISS
Multilateral Coordination Board is scheduled to meet today to begin the
process of coordination within the Partnership on implications to the
ISS resulting from the new policy. The Administration is also prepared
to address issues associated with obtaining foreign transportation
services to the Space Station, including provisions of the Iran
Nonproliferation Act, but until the ISS Partnership adopts a specific
implementation strategy, it is premature to identify specific issues.
U.S. research activities aboard the ISS will be focused to support
the new exploration goals, with an emphasis on understanding how the
space environment affects astronaut health and capabilities, and on
developing appropriate countermeasures to mitigate health concerns. ISS
will also be vital to develop and demonstrate improved life support
systems and medical care. Consistent with this focus, the budget
provides $343 million, a 61 percent increase above FY 2004, for
bioastronautics research to understand and mitigate risks to humans on
exploration missions. Over the next year, the Biological and Physical
Research Enterprise will conduct a thorough review of all research
activities to ensure that they are fully aligned with and supportive of
the new exploration vision.
New Space Transportation Capabilities--The budget provides $428
million to begin a new Crew Exploration Vehicle, named Project
Constellation, that will provide crew transport for exploration
missions beyond low-Earth orbit. The current budget planning is based
on formulation concept studies to be conducted in FY 2004, preliminary
design activities conducted in FY 2005 and FY 2006, a System Design
Review in FY 2005, and a Preliminary Design Review in FY 2006. NASA
plans to develop Project Constellation in a step-by-step approach, with
an initial unpiloted test flight as early as 2008, followed by tests of
progressively more capable designs that provide an operational human-
rated capability no later than 2014. Project Constellation may also
provide transportation to the Space Station, but its design will be
driven by exploration requirements.
NASA does not plan to pursue new Earth-to-orbit transportation
capabilities, except where necessary to support unique exploration
needs, such as a heavy lift vehicle. The budget discontinues the Space
Launch Initiative, although knowledge gained on the Orbital Space Plane
will be transferred to Project Constellation.
Lunar Exploration--NASA will undertake lunar exploration and
demonstration activities to enable sustained human and robotic
exploration of Mars and other destinations in the Solar System.
Beginning no later than 2008, NASA plans to launch the first in a
series of robotic missions to the Moon to prepare for and support human
exploration activities. The budget provides $70 million for these
robotic lunar test beds, increasing to $420 million by FY 2009. The
policy envisions the first human expedition to the lunar surface as
early as 2015, but no later than 2020. These robotic and human missions
will further science and demonstrate new approaches, technologies, and
systems--including the use of space resources--to support sustained
human exploration to Mars and other destinations.
Exploration of Mars--The stunning images we have received from Mars
are just the beginning of future Mars exploration. NASA will enhance
the ongoing search for water and evidence of life on Mars by pursuing
technologies in this decade for advanced science missions to Mars in
the next decade. Also starting in the next decade, NASA will launch a
dedicated series of robotic missions to Mars that will demonstrate
greatly enhanced robotic capabilities and enable future human
exploration of the Red Planet. The budget provides $691 million for
Mars Exploration, a 16 percent increase over FY 2004, and will double
Mars Exploration funding by FY 2009. NASA will conduct human
expeditions to Mars and other destinations beyond Earth orbit on the
basis of available resources, accumulated experience, and technology
readiness.
Other Solar System Exploration--Over the next two decades, NASA
will conduct an increasingly capable campaign of robotic exploration
across the Solar System. The budget provides $1.2 billion for Solar
System Exploration missions to Jupiter's icy moons, to Saturn and its
moon Titan, to asteroids and comets, and to other Solar System bodies.
These missions will search for evidence of life, help us to understand
the history of the Solar System, and search for resources.
Extrasolar Planets--NASA will launch advanced space telescopes that
will search for Earth-like planets and habitable environments around
other stars. The budget includes $1.1 billion for the Astronomical
Search for Origins, a 19 percent increase over FY 2004, to support
Hubble Space Telescope operations, the recently launched Spitzer Space
Telescope, James Webb Space Telescope development, as well as three
future observatories. This funding also supports investments to extend
the lifetime of the Hubble Space Telescope to the maximum extent
possible without a servicing mission.
Enabling Capabilities--NASA will pursue a number of key
capabilities to enable sustainable human and robotic exploration across
the Solar System. Among the most important of these capabilities is
advanced power and propulsion, and the budget provides $438 million for
Project Prometheus to develop these technologies for future robotic and
human exploration missions. The budget also includes $636 million in
other Human and Robotic Technology funding to pursue sustainable
approaches to Solar System exploration, such as reusable and modular
systems, pre-positioned propellants, space resource utilization,
automated systems and robotic networks, and in-space assembly. These
technologies will be demonstrated on the ground, in orbit, and on the
Moon beginning in this decade and extending into the next to help
inform future exploration decisions. The budget projects that funding
for these Human and Robotic Technology investments will grow to $1
billion by FY 2009.
The budget also includes innovative opportunities for U.S.
industry, academia, and members of the public to help meet the
technical challenges inherent in the new space exploration vision. The
budget includes $20 million for the new Centennial Challenges program,
which will establish competitions to stimulate innovation in space and
aeronautical technologies that can advance the exploration vision and
other NASA missions. The budget also provides $10 million for NASA to
purchase launch services for its payloads from emerging launch vehicle
providers. And as previously mentioned, the budget includes $140
million for Space Station transportation services.
Ongoing Priorities--The budget supports the vision for space
exploration, while maintaining NASA commitments in other important
roles and missions.
NASA continues its commitment to helping understand our changing
global climate. The budget makes NASA the largest contributor to the
interagency Climate Change Science Program with $100 million for the
Climate Change Research Initiative. The budget includes $560 million
for Earth Science research, a 7 percent increase above FY 2004, to
support research on data from 80 sensors on 18 satellites currently in
operation. Work also continues on Earth observation missions in
development or formulation, including $141 million (a 36 percent
increase from FY 2004) for the National Polar Orbiting Environmental
Satellite System Preparatory Project, $42 million for the Landsat Data
Continuity Mission, and $240 million (a 37 percent increase from FY
2004) for missions in formulation, such as the Orbiting Carbon
Observatory, Aquarius and Hydros.
NASA maintains planned Aeronautics Technology investments to
improve our Nation's air system. The budget includes: $188 million, a 4
percent increase above FY 2004, for technology to reduce aircraft
accidents and improve the security of our Nation's aviation system
against terrorist threats; $72 million, an 11 percent increase above FY
2004, for technology to reduce aircraft noise and improve the quality
of life for residents living near airports; $209 million for technology
to reduce aircraft emissions and improve environmental quality; and
$154 million for technologies to increase air system capacity and
reduce delays in the Nation's airports.
NASA will continue to make fundamental advances in our knowledge of
the Sun and the Universe. The budget provides $746 million for Sun-
Earth Connection missions, including the Solar Dynamics Observatory and
the Solar-Terrestrial Relations Observatory. The budget also provides
$378 million for Structure and Evolution of the Universe missions,
including the Chandra X-ray Observatory and three major missions
currently under development.
NASA also maintains its role in science, engineering and math
education. The budget includes $10 million for the newly authorized
Science and Technology Scholarship program, which will help attract the
Nation's best college students to NASA science and engineering careers.
The budget also provides $14 million for the NASA Explorer Schools,
which seeks to attract students to mathematics and science during the
critical middle school years. The Explorer Schools program is entering
its third phase and will be selecting 50 new schools for a total of 150
participating schools.
Management of Human Capital, Facilities and Institution--NASA has
earned the distinction of being the only Federal agency to earn top
grades for the Human Capital and Budget and Performance Integration
initiatives under the President's Management Agenda. Congress recently
passed the NASA Workforce Flexibility Act. NASA is grateful for the
hard work of this Committee in shaping this legislation to provide
necessary flexibilities to better manage the NASA workforce. These
flexibilities will be critical to implementing the exploration vision.
The budget includes $25 million in FY 2005 to begin to address critical
workforce skill and aging issues. NASA ratings have also improved in
the Competitive Sourcing and E-Government initiatives, resulting in
more total improvements than any other agency. Although we received a
disclaimed opinion on our recent audit statement, we are determined in
pursuing the right path in Financial Management in bringing on a new
financial system that will standardize accounting across the Agency and
provide the necessary tools for improved program management. NASA
remains committed to management excellence and believes it is essential
to implementing the new exploration vision.
The budget includes funding for critical institutional
capabilities, including $77 million for the NASA Engineering Safety
Center and $27 million for Independent Verification and Validation. The
budget also provides $307 million, a $41 million increase versus FY
2004, for facilities maintenance.
Organizing for Exploration
To successfully execute the exploration vision, NASA will re-focus
its organization, create new offices, align ongoing programs,
experiment with new ways of doing business, and tap the great
innovative and creative talents of our Nation.
The President has issued an Executive Order creating a commission
of private and public sector experts to advise on these issues. Former
Undersecretary of Defense and Secretary of the Air Force, Pete
Aldridge, is Chair of the Commission. The President has named eight
other commissioners to join Mr. Aldridge. The commission will issue its
report within four months of its first meeting, which is scheduled for
February 11, 2004.
Immediately following the President's speech, we established an
Exploration Systems Enterprise, which will have responsibility for
developing the Crew Exploration Vehicle and other exploration systems
and technologies. Retired U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Craig Steidle, former
manager of the Defense Department's Joint Strike Fighter Program, is
heading this new organization. Relevant programs of the Aerospace
Technology, Space Science, and Space Flight enterprises are being
transferred to the Exploration Systems Enterprise. The Aerospace
Technology Enterprise has been renamed the Aeronautics Enterprise to
reflect its new focus.
As human explorers prepare to join their robotic counterparts,
coordination and integration will increase. The Exploration Systems
Enterprise will work closely with the Space Science Enterprise to use
the Moon to demonstrate new approaches, technologies, and systems to
support sustained human exploration. NASA's Space Science Enterprise
will have responsibility for implementing early robotic testbeds on the
Moon and Mars and will also demonstrate other key exploration
technologies--such as advanced power, propulsion, and communications--
in missions to Mars and Jupiter's moons. NASA's Space Science
Enterprise will eventually integrate human capabilities into
exploration planning for Mars and other destinations.
Many other elements of the NASA organization will be focused to
support this new direction. NASA's Biological and Physical Research
Enterprise will put much greater emphasis on bioastronautics research
to enable the human exploration of other worlds. NASA's Office of the
Space Architect will be responsible for integrating the exploration
activities of NASA's different Enterprises and for maintaining
exploration roadmaps and coordinating high-level requirements.
As we move outward into the Solar System, NASA will look for
innovative ideas from the private sector and academia to support
activities in Earth orbit and future exploration activities beyond.
Many of the technical challenges that NASA will face in the coming
years will require innovative solutions. In addition to tapping
creative thinking within the NASA organization, we will leverage the
ideas and expertise resident in the Nation's universities and industry.
In his speech, the President directed NASA to invite other nations
to share in the challenges and opportunities of this new era of
exploration and discovery, and he directed us to fulfill our standing
international commitments. We are discussing the impact of our vision
implementation plans on the ISS with our partners, and as I have
already indicated we will complete the assembly of the ISS. The
President called our future course of exploration ``a journey, not a
race,'' and other nations have reacted positively to the President's
guidance. Several have already contacted us about joining in this
journey. Building on NASA's long history and extensive and close ties
with the space and research agencies of other nations, we will actively
seek international partners in executing future exploration activities.
NASA will also invigorate its workforce, focus its facilities, and
revitalize its field centers. As exploration activities get underway,
NASA anticipates planning, reviews, and changes to align and improve
its infrastructure. In order to achieve the exploration vision, we will
be making decisions on how to best implement new programs. While some
of these necessary actions will not be easy, they are essential to
achieving the goals of the overall effort before us. We urge you to
consider the full context of what we will be proposing rather than any
isolated, specific action. Such a perspective will allow us to move
forward in implementing the vision.
FY 2003 Accomplishments
Much of the NASA's future ability to achieve the new space
exploration vision is predicated on NASA's many previous
accomplishments. The most visible NASA successes over the past year are
the Spirit and Opportunity rovers currently on Mars. Already, the
landscapes imaged by these twin rovers and their initial science
returns are hinting at fundamental advances in our understanding of
early environmental conditions on Mars and whether Mars was once
capable of sustaining water and the development of life.
However, Spirit and Opportunity are not the only recent NASA
mission successes. NASA successfully launched four new Space Science
missions (including the two Mars rovers), three new Earth Science
missions, one new NASA communications relay satellite, and completed
two Space Station deployment missions. Missions in operation have also
achieved a number of notable successes, including the Stardust
mission's successful flight through the tail of Comet Wild-2, initial
images from the recently launched Spitzer Space Telescope, a ten-to
100-fold improvement in Earth's gravity map from the GRACE satellite,
the most accurate maps of Earth temperatures to date from the Aqua
satellite, and new insights into space weather and solar activity from
Sun-Earth Connection missions.
NASA exceeded or met 83 percent of its annual performance goals for
FY 2003. Among these accomplishments were demonstrations of new systems
to improve air traffic control and to combat aircraft icing,
improvements in battery, telescope sensor, and life support
technologies, fundamental advances in understanding states of matter
from Space Station research, and the implementation of new remote
sensing tools for tracking diseases and wild fires.
The Nation's Future in Exploration and Discovery
As the President stated in his speech, we are embarking on a
journey, not a race. We begin this journey of exploration and discovery
knowing that many years of hard work and sustained effort will be
required, yet we can look forward to achieving concrete results in the
near term. The vision makes the needed decisions to secure long-term
U.S. space leadership. It provides an exciting set of major milestones
with human and robotic missions. It pursues compelling science and
cutting-edge technologies. It invites new ideas and innovations for
accomplishing this bold, new vision. And it will provide the
opportunity for new generations of Americans to explore, innovate,
discover and enrich our Nation in ways unimaginable today. The
President's challenging vision provides unique opportunities for
engaging students across the country, ``as only NASA can,'' to enter
careers in science, engineering, technology and math.
We sincerely appreciate the forum the Subcommittee has provided
today, and Dr. Kicza, Adm. Steidle and I look forward to responding to
your questions.
A Renewed Spirit of Discovery
The President's Vision for U.S. Space Exploration
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Senator Brownback. Thank you very much and I agree with
that.
Let me first, before we go on to any questions,
congratulate you on the two rovers on Mars. What a fascinating
treat. They're just great pictures and information, working. It
makes me feel safer in my car knowing it landed in airbags so
that, you know, I trust my airbag a lot more in that car. It's
just really a beautiful vision and very encouraging to a number
of people that that's occurring.
Second, I want to congratulate you and the people in the
administration as well on a new vision. I've been after the
administration for some period of time that we've been less and
less stuck in lower space orbit. You are doing good work, but
it doesn't keep us on the balls of our feet leaning forward all
the time and this one does and this one's going to be a real
challenge. It seems to me we've got a number of challenges in
getting there, not the least of which is political, really,
getting this on through. And those are some of the issues that
I want to address and ask you about as well.
We'll start with the Admiral that's going to run the new
space launch vehicle--or the new----
Admiral Steidle. Yes, sir.
Senator Brownback.--vehicle design of it.
Admiral Steidle. Yes.
Senator Brownback. Give me 2 minutes of where your thinking
is regarding the design of this project and how it's going to
build on the past projects that we've had of designing new
space vehicles.
Admiral Steidle. Yes, sir. The reason I was asked to come
to NASA was, originally, to discuss large integrations of
systems that could be tied together to produce a product. I was
the director of the Joint Strike Fighter Program and we pulled
that program together, harmonized the requirements for that
particular program and got it started and kicked off. So, in
those original discussions, I found a tremendous amount of
enthusiasm that was infectious. Then, I came in one day before
Thanksgiving and I haven't left yet.
I am going to apply the lessons learned from the Joint
Strike Fighter Program and that is to look at the trade studies
and the pieces that have already been done. There's a lot of
work on OSP and some other technical maturation programs that
are applicable to where we're going in the future. I designed
an office in which I have technologists and operators together
who will sort through the trade studies and define the
requirements. With discipline we'll hold those requirements
through the process. I've got an office of technologists who
will bring those technologies to fruition through risk
mitigation and make sure they integrate in this particular
product. I've got a team down here today looking at the work
that has already been done on OSP and other particular programs
to reap those lessons learned and apply them to this particular
vehicle.
The program itself is Prometheus, which is the nuclear
propulsion piece, in space propulsion; it's the CEV system.
Senator Brownback. CEV system?
Admiral Steidle. Yes, sir. That is the crew exploration
vehicle itself.
And then all these technology pieces that come together.
So, it's a system of all these pieces being integrated together
to perform this exploration vision that the Nation has. We're
also going to apply some new ways of doing acquisitions. Things
that we have used over in DOD are very applicable and that's
the discipline that's going to be applied in the program. Then
we're off and running.
Senator Brownback. Do you have any initial thoughts on a
cost of being able to pull together and get this new vehicle?
What's your budget for doing that?
Admiral Steidle. Certainly.
Senator Brownback. Do you have any ideas on that?
Admiral Steidle. Yes, sir. I've looked at what's in the
budget right now that goes out to 2009 and there's
approximately $1.5 billion per year. We have a flight in 2008
for a performance demonstration, which is a risk mitigation
plan. There's funding to be able to support that and we also
have a flight in the year 2011. So, there's $4.5 billion after
that. I've looked at the assumptions in putting that budget
together, from my background in other major programs, and it
fits.
Senator Brownback. Let me stop you on that point.
Admiral Steidle. Sure.
Senator Brownback. You say it fits. A number of people have
been challenging the budget number----
Admiral Steidle. Yes, sir.
Senator Brownback.--on doing this for $11 billion
reprogrammed internally and 1 billion additional----
Admiral Steidle. Yes, sir.
Senator Brownback.--on the vehicle itself. Are you
comfortable and confident of that budget number given your past
experience with Joint Strike and looking at what you're putting
together here?
Admiral Steidle. Yes, sir, I am. And that was one of the
first questions I had coming in here. What are the underlying
assumptions? Where do these figures come from? Has there been
an independent assessment of those figures? What do you have in
mind? The Nation's vision articulated by the President as,
essentially, the initial requirements for what we need to do. I
can match that with the assumptions that put that budget
together and I felt very confident we can achieve that and
that's why I signed on to execute this.
Senator Brownback. The administrator has talked a number of
times about how going to the Moon and beyond with this vehicle
doesn't require any leaps of faith, in that we don't have this
technology, or breaking any laws of physics.
In developing the new vehicle it seems to me that the major
issue of new development is going to be the power generating
unit, Project Prometheus.
Admiral Steidle. Yes, sir.
Senator Brownback. Is that correct in your estimation? And
I want you to talk a little bit about Prometheus, if that is a
correct assumption, that that is the major technological issue
to press forward with.
Admiral Steidle. Yes, it is a major technological
achievement. The reactor is doable. The engines on the back
ends are doable and are actually flying at JPL facilities there
right now. It's the transfer of the power between the two. We
have that capability and with the time lines that we have, the
year 2015 and beyond to demonstrate that capability in flight,
we'll achieve that.
The other part of your question is the need for not having
any significant technological breakthroughs and what we are
going to apply in the technical maturation program is the
application of new technologies, increased manufacturing
capabilities, subsystems, upgrading the integration of those
particular systems and software into this particular vehicle.
So, we think we can apply technologies that are there for
manufacturing these particular vehicles differently than it has
been done in the past and will not require any inventions.
Senator Brownback. That last statement, expand that.
Admiral Steidle. What we did, and I can only go backward
and tell you what we did in Joint Strike Fighter, which I think
is applicable here. As we went forward with the actual design
of the vehicle, we also went forward to industry, what we plan
on doing here, asking for new, innovative technologies in areas
such as manufacturing, integration of subsystems, lowering the
cost of doing business and we got a lot of tech maturation
proposals. We initiated quite a few of them that found their
way into those particular vehicles; we intend to do that here
as well.
We plan to define the requirements of the vehicle and then
look across the board at technologies that can reduce the cost,
increase the manufacturing capability of it, integrate the
subsystems into those particular vehicles and we have several
of those technology maturations programs under review already.
They were simple things that have already been done in
manufacturing, in life support, habitation, integrated
subsystems, that have been done and started. We just need to
refocus those and that's a big part of this program as well.
There's quite a bit of technology programs that have been
brought into our enterprise as well. We're refocusing those and
doing program assessment to make sure they steer toward this
particular vehicle and the system, in general.
Senator Brownback. Mr. Readdy, that's one of the things
that's been striking to me and I'm going to talk about the
tough questions because those are the ones that people are
raising. We have a budget deficit of $500 billion. The Congress
and the President's getting serious about wanting to get back
to a balanced budget. So, then people say ``Well, then you
can't do these big, new, expensive programs like this going to
the Moon and Mars.''
You know, and my comment is, A, most of it's reprogrammed
money and, B, we ought to be able to show people--we've got
enough total money. We just don't have it spent in the right
places and we're going to reallocate the funds.
Then other people raise up say ``Well, you can't do it for
this number in the budget.'' And they'll cite to prior
proposals to go to Mars and enormous budget figures. What is so
different about this project than those prior assessments of
cost of going to Mars?
Admiral Steidle. I think there are several different
facets. One is NASA's committed to fulfilling this new
exploration vision and we've been willing to make the really
tough trades internally to do that. I think in your opening
statement you mentioned that NASA is going to receive $1
billion in the next five-year budget run out, but $11 billion
will be for reprogramming and reprioritizing among NASA's
ongoing missions.
A major portion of that is phasing out the space shuttle.
It frees up dollars in later years to go ahead and accelerate
our space exploration vision. Also, when you look at the vision
that the President spelled out, it puts space shuttle and space
station into more context in that it fulfills, I think, the
analog of what Gemini did during the lunar program initially in
the Sixties. When the President committed us to going to the
Moon in this decade, we had 15 minutes of suborbital space
flight in this country, Alan Shepherd. We didn't know among the
three different competing options for how to get to the Moon;
we didn't have a rocket booster that could get us there. The
technologies required were not going to be demonstrated during
the Mercury era.
What was on the drawing board for Project Apollo were large
booster rockets, spacecraft that potentially could go from the
surface of the Earth to the surface of the Moon or rendezvous
in Earth or lunar orbit. All that was really not defined when
the President committed us to do that.
The Gemini program is where we did the technological
development and demonstrated the capabilities necessary to
actually go to the Moon, land successfully and bring the crews
back. It demonstrated rendezvous, space walks, the ability to
change orbits and do space navigation, and some maturity and
reliability in the life support systems and the power
generation systems we would need to go to the Moon. It also
demonstrated human endurance and if you go back to that era,
the notion that people could survive in space for 2 weeks was
still an open question.
So, what this new vision does is it puts space shuttle and
space station in a new context where we're using that as kind
of the Gemini analog to inform our exploration agenda, to be
able to go on the Moon and then further on to Mars at some
point.
The other thing is that without a date certain to land
within this decade to do the following, it also frees us to be
able to work on the technologies that will enable us to do this
more capably. And I think it also causes that engine of
ingenuity here within the private sector industry, academia and
NASA to focus on the problems that we have at hand. So, I think
all of those, plus our willingness to reprogram within our own
budget, should give people the confidence that we have
capability to go off and do it.
Senator Brownback. And one thing I want to throw out here,
and I know the Chairman is very interested in this, is you have
within NASA a number of add-ons that have been put into your
budget from various Members of Congress for good and worthwhile
projects. I hope all of them are good and worthwhile projects,
but they're not ones that NASA has asked for nor has placed in
there. And if we can take those non-essential monies and put
them into a very targeted program to the Moon and beyond, we're
talking in the hundreds of millions of dollars, I believe, in
looking at your budget to be able to do that and that's going
to be one of my pushes on the Appropriation Committee. Now, we
know where we want to go here. Let's get the money that's non-
essential to that mission and make it essential to that
mission, so that you take those.
The other thing that's available that we didn't have before
is there's on-the-shelf technology that you can use that we
aren't going to have to go out and invent. You can pull those
things, a number of them; I used the airbag analogy on that. We
didn't have to invent that one, we had it developed. You got to
get it up to your specifications and needs but we know how this
thing works. Instead of discovering and inventing a way, we can
pull some of these pieces together.
And I guess, Admiral----
Admiral Steidle. Sure.
Senator Brownback.--that's really your task----
Admiral Steidle. Yes, sir.
Senator Brownback.--of doing those things.
Admiral Steidle. Yes, sir. We're out there right now
exploring what technologies are there, refocusing on ones that
are necessary, finding the gaps and then looking for programs
and projects that have already been done, and there's quite a
bit. Then look at those and do a program assessment for the
applicability for this particular program.
Senator Brownback. Mr. Readdy, international cooperation on
this exploration, what sort of communication have you had from
other countries of interest in working with us on this project?
Mr. Readdy. Well, when the President came to NASA and
presented his bold, new vision, the Administrator had been
talking on the phone that very morning with the other heads of
the international space agencies to tell them what it included
and in the President's remarks he said that this is not a race.
It's a journey and all will be included, and we solicit the
international participation.
I'd say thus far the reaction has been extremely positive.
Last week we had representatives from all the partner countries
come in. We went into more detail on what that involves and, in
fact, it provides more opportunity for them to participate. As
we refocus our efforts on human biology and some of the
problems that we need to address directly for exploration, it
allows the partners to participate in those and it allows our
principal investigators to partner internationally on other
disciplines, like materials research and other things. And so,
this really provides more opportunity for them.
Also, the notion that we would want to achieve our
objectives and research sooner with more crew provides
additional opportunities for our international partners. And
where we go beyond International Space Station, time will tell;
but there's tremendous interest and excitement from our
international partners.
Senator Brownback. There has been some challenges regarding
the International Space Station, which has been an
international project. But then I hear rumors--and I have not
looked at these numbers--that other countries haven't come
through with the degree of funding that we wanted them to, or
that they originally signed on to, in this project or they have
not done the things that we had asked.
Is that accurate or inaccurate? Would you answer that
question concerning the space station, for us to be able to get
that as a model for this project?
Mr. Readdy. Well, be happy to get you the details. But I'd
say in aggregate the partners have been there for us and have
participated very actively. Their hardware has for the most
part been delivered. They're making progress on their
commitments and certainly in the past year the Russians have
demonstrated their integral----
Senator Brownback. They really carried the load, haven't
they?
Mr. Readdy. They have, in fact.
So, we expect that to continue; but we will need to include
them in our discussions of how our participation will change
because, clearly, as we phaseout the shuttle, there may be more
reliance on commercial sector logistics or the European-
provided ATV or Russian logistics. All of those are in the
trade space.
Senator Brownback. If we phased out the shuttle faster and
reprogrammed that money toward this project sooner and relied,
then, on other partners or the commercial sector to take care
of the International Space Station, can we move up the time-
frame of this project?
Mr. Readdy. Senator, we looked at that very closely in
formulating this vision and choosing the time-frame that we
did, and it looks to us as though the completion of
International Space Station around the end of the decade is an
achievable set of milestones.
We want to make sure that we do it very deliberately, but
the shuttle is the only vehicle capable of taking those modules
to the International Space Station, the only vehicle capable of
conducting the assembly operations that are required. So, the
shuttle is needed to complete the International Space Station,
that role. And as soon as we've completed the International
Partner Core Complete, we'll phase the shuttle out.
Senator Brownback. Dr. Kicza?
Dr. Kicza. Kicza.
Senator Brownback. Kicza, excuse me.
There have been a lot of challenges to whether or not human
endurance would survive a mission to Mars and back given the
length of time that it will take. Project Prometheus, we're
hopeful, cutting the time-frame down, as I understand, I
believe a third.
Admiral Steidle. Yes, sir.
Senator Brownback. To a third of the current. But you're
still talking about an extended stay. Can humans survive and do
this with what we know and what we believe the timeframes will
be to go to Mars and back?
Dr. Kicza. Yes. Based on what we know today, we do think
it's achievable; but there are clearly some countermeasures
that we're going to have to put in place. Probably the most
significant is radiational and shielding from radiation. A lot
of our work on the ground is focused on this right now. In
fact, just this last October in cooperation with the Department
of Energy we opened a new radiation line at Brookhaven National
Laboratory specifically dedicated to NASA's needs to understand
the impacts of radiation on biological systems and then to
develop the materials to allow us to shield humans on those
journeys to the Moon or to Mars or in transit. We do think it's
achievable. Yes, there's some work to be done but we have the
tools in place to do it.
Senator Brownback. Is radiation the major issue or are
there others?
Dr. Kicza. Sure. Probably one of the tallest poles is
clearly radiation. Other countermeasures that we need to put in
place deal directly with the effects of the microgravity
environment on our astronauts. We've seen from our research to
date that astronauts clearly suffer from bone loss. They suffer
from muscle atrophy in the space environment, problems with
sleep, and circadian rhythms are upset as you go through
sunrise and sunset many times a day.
So, yes, there are issues that we have to face about the
microgravity environment and that's why the International Space
Station is so central to our research. It allows us to conduct
this research; it allows us to understand where the thresholds
are taking place at which point these symptoms are manifesting
themselves anywhere from 0G to even close to 1G. We have the
capability to understand at what point these impacts are
happening so that, then, we can perform the countermeasures.
For example, artificial gravity, what are the systems we need
to put in place to counter-effect the weightless environment?
And that's what the space station is doing for us right now
in a laboratory environment where we can conduct those
experiments.
Senator Brownback. General Howell, any time you reprogram
money, particularly $11 billion, you get a lot of people
enquiring about where they are in this reprogrammed system. I'm
guessing you're getting a lot of questions like that here. I
hope people are reacting positively to the phasing out of the
space shuttle. It's been a great vehicle. It has done a lot of
work, but we have had tragedy and it's time to move on.
I hope people are reacting that way in the scientific
community as well. Are there things that we should be
communicating or what can you tell me about how people are
handling the transition?
General Howell. Senator, we're very excited about the
vision. Of course, first things first, as you know the Johnson
Space Center has been a focal point for human space exploration
for over 40 years and right now we have literally thousands of
our people involved in the return to flight effort as well as
the support of the space station. So, you know, what is
critical to this vision is our return to flight and assembly of
the station. And that's what we're all about right now here as
well as the medical and human, clinical research in space. We
do all that here, too.
So, our people are fully employed now and in the near
future.
At the same time we have been, you know, joined at the hip
with the shuttle program. That's so important to us, because
people are concerned about what lies ahead in the future.
However, I'm doing everything I can to assure them that the
same people who were needed to develop, assemble and fly the
shuttle are the same people who are going to be needed to do
the crew exploration vehicle and all of that. These wonderful,
talented, committed people are going to be needed for whatever
NASA does in human space exploration. So, this should be a time
of great excitement for all of our people and I'm trying to get
that message across to them, because we're going to be right in
the middle of all of this. It's just going to be a great time
for this area, I believe.
Senator Brownback. General, we get the question a lot and
it's raised often. I don't know of anybody in a better position
to answer it than you. Why humans? These rovers are doing
great. We can do this for a lot less expense. The safety issue
is a concern and each life is precious to us so that, I mean,
the safety issue is a very real thing. Why not just do all of
this by robots, to the Moon and Mars and on?
General Howell. Sir, the President said it much better than
I can. I think we are compelled, as a nation, to go beyond, to
explore. I think as a human race we've always had to go to the
other side of the hill, go across the ocean. Now it's out in
space. We have to take inherent risk in exploration, but I
think it's part of humanity, and as a great Nation, we must do
great things and lead the way in this. It's just something that
we have to do. I guess that's the best explanation I can give
you, sir.
Senator Brownback. I've argued with people if we don't and
others do, what does that do to the psyche of a nation?
General Howell. I personally think that would be the
beginning of the end for this Nation as a great nation. You
know, as a leader of the world, it's imperative that we lead
the world in space exploration. That's my personal opinion.
Senator Brownback. And if we fail to do it, I just feel it
sends such a shutter through the system that we're too fearful
to risk that we won't do it. And plus, to me, it'd be a
disaster for those who have gone before them and put their
lives on the line, some of which have been lost, to not carry
on.
Mr. Readdy. Sir?
Senator Brownback. Mr. Readdy?
Mr. Readdy. If I can add, just like freedom isn't free,
often space exploration has expended a very awful toll, most
recently last year, but the fact of the matter is the way we
honor their legacy is not to quit; it's to press on. It's to
fulfill the dreams that they had and the dreams of generations
to come.
Exploration is part of the human psyche. It's the same
thing that drives the curiosity of your 2-year-old to learn to
explore. It's what causes us to relate to the robots and their
exploration, however slight. With 6 billion hits on the
Internet, certainly people are excited about this, but what
those rovers will be able to do in 90 to 120 days a human in a
space suit could accomplish in an afternoon, in a single space
walk.
And so, there's a notion also of productivity. But we are
explorers by nature.
Senator Brownback. Well, thank you very much. I look
forward to working with you and the Chairman and we're working
on the authorization legislation language. One of the things
that we'll talk about with the next panel is the use of
incentives to the private sector to get that capital involved
and in some cases may be prize money, note that the X factor I
mentioned in my opening testimony is attracting. I don't know
how many millions people are spending to get a $10 million
prize but they're spending a lot of money to do that. And I
hope we can use that as well here to try to stimulate private
sector activity and to get that capital motivated and moving
forward. We may put more of that in the authorizing language as
well, Mr. Readdy, and I've talked to the administrator about
that, too.
Mr. Readdy. And, in fact, I think we have a centennial
prize already as part of a----
Admiral Steidle. Yes, you'll see it. There's a budget line
called Centennial Challenge, which is exactly what you
described, sir. It is prize money for innovative technologies
to have application to what we want to do and it's in there and
it's in my office, the point is to stimulate some innovative
thinking on private sector to participate.
Senator Brownback. Just have such a fabulous private sector
and I--to me in designing this one versus going to the Moon the
first time around, which really had to be a government project
when we went to the Moon the first time. I hope to really marry
into these guys that have a lot of technology and capital. I
want to marry into their capital and get this thing moving
further and faster.
Admiral Steidle. Yes, sir.
Senator Brownback. With that, we will go to the next panel.
I want to thank and congratulate you. I've held a number of
hearings on space, most of which have been tough because, well,
we've had a difficult time. But it's now time to move on and
look forward and this is an exciting moment. And I look forward
to seeing that person on the Moon working and on Mars walking
in the near future.
God speed. Thank you very much.
Mr. Readdy. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Senator Brownback. Our second panel, the private sector
panel, engage in the private sector with this mission and they
all consist of Charles Chafer, President of Human Encounter out
of Houston; Mr. Bob Lorsch. He's President of the RHL Group,
which is an advertising group and has been interested in
advertising and its resources and usefulness in space. Some
very interesting prospects and proposals there; Mr. W. F.
Mitchell, President of Altair Development Corporation of League
City, Texas; and Mr. Courtney Stadd, President of Capital
Solutions out of Bethesda, Maryland. I look forward to the
presentations from these individuals regarding engagement of
the private sector capital on the space exploration work.
Let's see. Mr.--is it Chafer or Schaeffer?
Mr. Chafer. Chafer.
Senator Brownback. Chafer. We've got you down first on the
program. So, please feel free--I will include all of your
written statements in the record. So, if you'd care to just
summarize that would be wonderful. If you want to present it
that would be good, too, and then we'll have questions and
answers afterwards. Thank you for joining us.
STATEMENT OF CHARLES M. CHAFER, PRESIDENT,
TEAM ENCOUNTER, LLC
Mr. Chafer. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And thank you for your
leadership in providing the private sector's view here today. I
will summarize my testimony. From my youth on a Kansas farm to
my mid-youth launching rockets here in Houston, Texas or
Matagorda Island, I've spent a long time thinking that
commercial activities in space are critical and that the
President has recently committed us to move humanity throughout
the solar system where I think that there's an important
critical role for the private sector in that. And I had four
observations that I wanted to share with you today on that
subject. I think it's all good news.
The first is that, as I said, I think the private capital
is required in order to achieve the President's goals; but,
fortunately, I also think that it's available. It's required
because if you listen to Chairman Aldridge at the first meeting
of the President's commission, there was a lot of discussion
about sustainability and about, ``Well, maybe we can't do
business as usual anymore,'' in terms of how we go about
meeting those goals. I think that's true simply for the point
that if we can achieve sustainability through private sector
dollars, that means every dollar that comes in commercially to
relevant space technology is a dollar the taxpayer doesn't have
to come up with. It's not a hundred percent tradeoff by any
means but there is a way to do it cooperatively.
I think, also, second, the private capital is available for
space projects. Certainly in my career we've spent and raised
tens, tens and tens of millions of dollars toward commercial
ventures. We've heard today about Elon Musk and Paul Allen.
These are guys that have substantial capital that are currently
funding commercial space transportation opportunities. And
certainly with Team Encounter and our flight schedule for next
year, we've been able to tap into money here in real estate and
energy and software development. So, I think there's money
that's required. Fortunately, there's money that's available.
Second point I wanted to make is that I think today there
are some encouraging signs that, perhaps, Federal space
agencies are more open to private capital infusions than
perhaps they've been in the past. I'll cite two examples that
I'm personally familiar with and try to draw analogies to the
President's program. I mentioned that we'll be flying our Team
Encounter flight one in the fourth quarter of next year for
public participation, for corporate sponsors and for cutting-
edge technology. We'll be flying advanced solar sail propulsion
technology that we're teamed with the NASA Langley Research
Center on.
We were recently awarded a contract by NASA to fly one of
their space instruments, that's under test and development, on
our commercial mission. It's a little bit of a paradigm shift
in that the private sector wasn't looking to NASA to fly stuff,
NASA was looking to us to fly stuff and that was really for a
couple of reasons. One is I think it was best value for the
government and certainly it was a valuable partner for us to
have in the form of NASA.
Secondly, I think it was important that we're risk-sharing
with NASA. If we don't succeed, we don't get paid; and I think
that's an important component of private sector risk capital
can come in and take some of those risks, not all of them by
any means, again. But it's an important way to leverage the
genius that I think our country has in private sector funding.
The third point about working with NASA is we're learning
to work together; which hasn't been easy. There's a lot of
flexibility that we have to show as a private company. There's
an enormous amount of flexibility that NASA's had to show in
working with us to fly this instrument on our commercial
mission. So, I think that's good news at NASA. I think that can
be drawn out to other missions as we look to going to the Moon
and Mars. There are plenty of opportunities to work together
with NASA.
A second thing that I wanted to mention, though, was that
we ought to look at all Federal agencies. The National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration recently released a request for
information where they said: ``We need to learn about solar
storms, but we're willing to do that with our next generation
spacecraft by issuing a data purchase contract to a private
company that goes out to L1, a long way out, and puts a
spacecraft there and brings the data back to us.''
Again, a bit of a paradigm shift and I think an important
sign that maybe things are a little bit more friendly in terms
of private sector and government cooperation. So, my second
point is that we're beginning to see some encouraging signs and
we ought to really work on those.
The third point that I wanted to make was how can we do
this? And I think government policy should encourage private
sector access, should encourage the certainty that the private
sector will be there and third and most importantly, I guess
from the government's point of view, the government ought to be
allowed to engage in certain risk management techniques that,
perhaps, they don't do now.
On the first point in terms of access, I believe that all
Federal agencies should seek co-investment opportunities in the
development of space technologies and applications, as they say
here in Texas, from the get go. Just don't think of it as an
afterthought but as you're building Project Prometheus, as
you're looking at people on the Moon and on Mars, from the very
beginning how can we encourage the private sector to co-invest
with us? I think that would be an important sign about access.
In terms of certainty, I think that private sector
participation needs to be institutionalized within Federal
agencies. I'm careful to say not bureaucratized within Federal
agencies, but the ebb and flow of commercial ability to work
with space agencies is one of the clearest ways that private
sectors will not come in. They need some certainty.
Ultimately all policy is people, I believe; and we were
very fortunate to be able to work with Dr. Ed Weiler and a
gentleman down here at the end of the table, named Courtney
Stadd, who was the Chief of Staff at NASA when we approached
them with our innovative private sector approach. They served
as honest brokers on both sides of the table. Probably pulled
all of their hair out in the process but we're absolutely
critical to the process of being able to marry my investors,
who are skeptical about investing, and the government managers
who are going: ``Who are these guys from Texas and why should
we talk to them?''
So, I think it would be useful if we find a way to
institutionalize. We can't institutionalize Courtney because
he's left; but if we can create a position in the Federal space
program world that says ``This is where you come to talk to us
about commercial space activity,'' I think that would be very
important.
My final recommendation on government policy, I put my
government hat on. Commercial ventures are by their nature
viewed as perhaps a little bit more risky than the way the
government does things. That, again, I think is the great
genius of America; but there are risk management techniques
available to the government. Simply ensuring government
activities and payloads or requiring the private sector to do
that is a way to give those managers who are thinking about
working with the private sector a little more certainty.
My final point, Mr. Chairman, is that I believe that if we
accomplish these goals we'll do a lot of things; we'll be more
competitive. There'll be less Federal dollars required, but the
most important thing is that we'll inspire the folks that you
were talking about. Certainly I'm an example of being inspired
by the Apollo program. Also, I can tell you we get resumes
every day of the week from kids. ``How can I be a part of your
exciting commercial space station? I want to sign up.''
You know, I can't hire them all but I believe that if we
expanded the private sector commitment to space, you'd see an
awful lot of people looking for jobs there and maybe not in
other arenas that aren't quite so productive toward the goals
that we all share here today.
Thank you very much.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Chafer follows:]
Prepared Statement of Charles M. Chafer, President, Team Encounter, LLC
Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee, thank you for holding
this important Senate hearing in Houston and for giving commercial
space entrepreneurs the opportunity to offer their valuable perspective
on how the private sector and NASA may cooperate most effectively to
assist in the realization of the President's new space policy.
As a boy spending summers on my grandparents' farm in Republic
County, Kansas, during the Apollo era, I can recall looking at moonrise
over their fields and wondering how I could make a contribution to what
seemed to be that most important human endeavor--the exploration of
space.
Years later, as a young man, I was blessed with that very
opportunity by being fortunate enough to land a position with David
Hannah, Jr., and former Mercury and Apollo astronaut Deke Slayton at
Houston, Texas-based Space Services, Inc. of America (SSI). In 1982,
SSI became the first ever private company to conduct a launch into
outer space--Conestoga 1.
Today, I've devoted my career seeking to expand private-sector
space activities--because success in this arena holds the key to
humanity's long-term prosperity. We simply must extend our presence
throughout the solar system.
May I make four observations that best describe the potential for
further private-sector/NASA cooperation.
First, private sector capital is essential and is available to
fulfill the emerging opportunities of new space age. At the first
meeting of the President's Commission on Implementation of United
States Space Exploration Policy, there was much discussion devoted to
``sustainability'' and to the notion that ``business as usual'' would
not result in the early achievement of these bold new space
initiatives.
Simply put, significant private investment is a key element to help
the President's initiative achieve sustainability. In an era of tight
Federal budgets, every private dollar invested in relevant space
technology development is a dollar not required of the taxpayers.
Fortunately, significant private investment capital is indeed
available to support space technology development and application in
areas of relevance to the new space initiative. The great genius of
this country lies in the ability to mobilize capital quickly and
efficiently in pursuit of real opportunities. For example, recently we
have seen significant investments by successful Internet entrepreneurs,
including Paul Allen of Microsoft and Elon Musk, founder of PayPal,
Inc., in new modes of space transportation. Team Encounter, LLC, has
been able to attract significant capital from some of Houston's leading
energy, software, and real-estate developers. Generally speaking, I
believe that investment capital can and will flow into space activities
under the right set of circumstances.
My second observation is that there are now encouraging signs
within various Federal agencies that private investment may be welcome.
Two examples illustrate vividly this emerging reality.
Recently Team Encounter was awarded a contract from NASA's New
Millennium Program to fly its Inertial Stellar Compass aboard our
Flight One Mission late next year. This contract is important to
commercial investors for several reasons. NASA has chosen to fly one of
its experiments, as a secondary payload, on a mission that is primarily
commercial in nature. We represented a ``best value'' proposition for
NASA, and NASA represented important additional revenue and enhanced
stature for us. We are risk sharing with NASA in that only upon the
success of the mission are we able to collect the second half of the
contract value. Finally, both NASA and Team Encounter are learning how
to work together in an ``imperfect'' environment. By that I mean that
each side has had to exhibit flexibility and accommodation in order to
reach an acceptable mission profile.
A second recent example extends beyond NASA to another Federal
agency with a significant space portfolio, the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Last year NOAA published a Request
for Information (RFI-NESDIS-OSD-002) seeking to understand the
viability of a ``data purchase'' approach to providing next-generation
solar-wind data from a commercially operated spacecraft. This request
also contemplates a risk-and reward-sharing approach to the achievement
of U.S. Government space needs and, as such, is further evidence that
creative people in the government and the private sector might well be
able to work together to achieve common goals.
The above examples, and others, underline the potential for a
paradigm shift to take place in government/private-sector interaction
in the development and application of space technologies. This should
be encouraged further as we embark upon great new space agendas.
Third, governmental policy should focus on methods and systems that
best can offer access and certainty to the private sector while
offering new risk management tools to governmental managers. I have
three suggestions.
First, all Federal agencies -not just NASA--should examine their
space efforts for co-investment opportunities. New space program
initiatives should be designed from the outset to encourage private-
sector co-investment whenever possible.
Second, federal commitment to commercial co-investment in space
should be institutionalized. not bureaucratized. Ebb-and-flow interest
in space commerce does not create a positive investment climate. Each
Federal agency with a space portfolio should have a commercial-space
advocate. This is paramount. All policy is ultimately embodied in the
people charged with its implementation.
At NASA, Team Encounter was extremely fortunate to be able to work
with Dr. Ed Weiler and his capable staff including Charles Gay and
others and former Chief of Staff Courtney Stadd, whose long-term
commitment to including the private sector in space is well known, as
evidenced by his appearance on today's panel. Without their commitment
to overcome any barrier and willingness to honestly broker very real
concerns on both the government's and industry's side of the table, I
would not be able today to speak to NASA's new interest in private-
sector approaches.
Third, risk management techniques--for example, insurance coverage
for Federal payloads--should be permitted as a means to assist agencies
to accept conventional commercial-risk parameters as they work with
existing and emerging private-sector space companies.
My final observation is that a continuous, strong national
commitment to the inclusion of private investment in space applications
and exploration will inspire a new generation of engineers and
entrepreneurs; permit the U.S. to accomplish major new space goals in a
budget-constrained environment; and help to maintain our leadership in
an increasingly competitive global space industry.
Please allow me to elaborate on the first point. Our own Team
Encounter missions--involving a unique blend of cutting-edge technology
development, corporate sponsorship and media participation, and direct
public participation via the internet--continually attract a steady
stream of resumes, inquiries, and ``how can I help?'' requests from
young people from every state and across the planet. Space missions can
be fun, exciting, and meaningful to young people as they contemplate
their career choices.
By embracing a new generation of entrepreneurial space companies,
NASA can help to ensure its own future through the development of
talented, enthusiastic engineers and managers. Perhaps this increased
inspiration to a new generation will be the most important legacy of
increased government/private sector cooperation in space.
Senator Brownback. Thank you.
The human soul is meant to be inspired and to yearn and
it's given an opportunity here. In fact, I have a young man
from Topeka--I don't know if Alex is still here. Alex, you
still here? Stand up.
This is a talented young Kansan who is interning down here
with the NASA program who's dreamed of doing this all his life
and his mother has dedicated her life to getting him to his
dream. And so, you have two people involved in that and done a
great job. It's a classic example.
Thanks, Alex.
Alex. Thank you.
Senator Brownback. The gentleman who was the one that put
the most meat on the bones about talking to me about
advertising and the ability to raise funds through advertising
with space programs is next to testify. Bob Lorsch, President
of RHL Group, has done a brilliant advertising work terra
firma. He wants to take this on a broader scale.
Bob, welcome.
STATEMENT OF ROBERT H. LORSCH, PRESIDENT,
THE RHL GROUP, INC.
Mr. Lorsch. Thank you, sir. And good morning, Mr. Chairman.
I'm here today to discuss this opportunity, which I think
is incredibly important and potentially very, very lucrative
for our country's space program. For more than 30 years, I have
specialized in advertising and sales promotion for some of the
biggest companies in the world, including Beatrice Foods,
Johnson & Johnson, Microsoft, Procter Gamble, all three major
television networks and numerous other international and
domestic corporations. I've been involved in private sector
philanthropy and cause-related marketing for a variety of major
charitable organizations, including the California Science
Center, which is the second largest science institution next to
the Smithsonian in the United States and the gateway of which
is the Robert H. Lorsch Family Pavilion. Talking about a place
for young minds to go and learn about what we're here today to
talk about.
I've received a ``C'' flag from the White House during the
Reagan Administration for private sector initiatives and I've
raised more than ten, probably tens of millions of dollars
through cause-related marketing programs for organizations that
are both charitable and private sector educational
organizations along the lines of the program I'm here to
discuss today.
In 1981, President Reagan challenged government to work
with the private sector, to create programs designed to return
a portion of the financial burden of government to business and
industry. I contacted the White House through his press
secretary, Jim Brady, at that time with an idea for NASA space
advertising program of noncommercial, and I want to emphasize
noncommercial and tasteful sponsorship, supportive messages,
not billboards and logos, to fly inside the space shuttle to
generate revenue for the space program.
The proposal suggested that for $1 million a sponsor could
place this noncommercial message on the inside of the wall of
the shuttle and at various points during the mission, when
astronauts were either being interviewed on camera or there
were camera pans of different experiments in the space shuttle,
those plaques would be displayed worldwide. The sponsorship
benefits would include lift-off and launch parties, pictures
with donates and astronauts, perhaps a visit by an astronaut on
a sponsored mission to a company's corporate headquarters and
the right to promote the company's involvement in the space
program; much like that of an Olympics advertiser could promote
their involvement with their Olympic program in a responsible,
supportive way.
Secretary Brady referred my program to a gentleman by the
name of Admiral Robert Garrick, who was Deputy Counselor to the
President. Working with Admiral Garrick and another gentleman
by the name of Fred Fielding, Counsel to the President, the
program made its way to Ed Meese, Chief of Staff at that time
and was, ultimately, forwarded on to NASA.
The gentleman at NASA who received the program is a
gentleman by the name of James Fanseen, who was Assistant
Administrator of NASA. Mr. Fanseen greatly supported this
program and worked over years to help me get it off the ground.
However, it had no success. It was rejected primarily because
there was no way for NASA to receive the money since monies
raised for a government agency, such as NASA, would have to go
into the treasury and there was no mechanism to get them back
out to the agency, which is really an important aspect of what
this committee should address, if you're going to entertain
private sector initiatives and commercialism of space.
Additionally, there was a significant belief that the
shuttle belonged to the American people and no organization of
any kind, other than the American people, had any right to make
it commercial. Officials in NASA, Congress and the senate
encouraged me to continue to stay with this program. In fact,
20 years later, I was approached to participate in NASA's Dream
Time Venture, which I rejected, and despite all good
intentions, did not materialize the way most would have liked
it to go.
In 1984, I presented a revised and updated approach to the
1981 presentation. This presentation was made now with much
more support from the administrator's office of NASA and the
White House and it was presented to Mr. Fanseen; Jesse Moore,
who was at that time Acting Assistant Administrator for space
flight, NASA's general counsel and others. Among the aspect of
this plan was an outline of how and when sponsorship plaques
could be broadcasted. It included an example of noncommercial
messages. Incentives were more detailed. Included VIP tours at
major space centers and the most significant thing a replica
plaque would fly with the sponsor plaque. So, one plaque could
actually hang in a corporate office and, more importantly, the
other plaque could hang in the Smithsonian Institute as a
tribute to the space mission that paved the way for the future.
However, despite all the encouragement, the program was,
again, rejected for similar reasons in 1984 and then in 1989.
I was told, additionally, that retaining the services of
any vendor in the private sector would need to be subject to
open competition and the Armed Services Procurement Act,
ignoring any of the intellectual property rights, common-law
copyrights or registrations which I might have accrued over the
years of submitting these various concepts.
Since the first shuttle flight, there have been 113
missions. If this program had been implemented the space
program could have earned more than $5 billion. That would have
represented more than enough money to cover the entire budget
in 1982 when I started or nearly 35 percent of last year's NASA
budget, a staggering number.
Additionally, the message of support, which will now never
be seen, would remind the public about the importance of the
space program in our daily lives without taking away the
public's ownership in any manner whatsoever. In addition, I
might say that NASA has gone out of their way with the NASA
Public Affairs Television Network, the Dream Time Venture and a
variety of other programs, most of which are available on the
website, to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to get the
message out that these advertising sponsors could have gotten
out on a win-win-plus-revenue basis versus an expense.
Last month President Bush announced a plan for this Nation
to have manned missions to go back to the Moon and Mars. NASA
estimates these programs will require expenditures of at least
$170 billion. Hundreds of millions of dollars more will be
needed to convert NASA's ground-based and space-based video
facilities to HDTV standards over the next decade and with an
underfunded NASA, stuck where it was in 1979 at eight-tenths of
a percent of the Federal budget, the challenge seems
insurmountable.
My written submission includes copies of my 1981 and 1984
presentations along with a revised presentation in 2004.
Working with NASA, this program can become a reality starting
now. It can generate dollars, enough dollars for ground and
space-based facility upgrades with billions more in the works
from sponsors within the next 3 years.
In fact, in 1999 NASA, despite all the contradiction of my
program, posted its own commercial space transportation study,
a portion of which is included in my written submission. In
Section 3.10.3.7 of NASA's own document it says, and I quote:
``the use of launch vehicles as an advertising medium is a
newly evolving market with the potential to obtain substantial
revenues.'' However, nothing's been done. Since that period of
time, billions could have been generated to the space program
with the support of plaque messages that I spoke about earlier.
It discusses opportunities for advertising in space,
including orbiting billboards. It discusses an agreement with
Columbia Pictures on an ad for ``The Last Action Hero,'' which
was placed on the side of the Conestoga comet launch vehicle
for $500,000 while the Soviets are generating millions of
dollars from American companies such as Pepsi. Why don't those
monies stay in our space program?
This Subcommittee needs to create a mechanism to get money
from the private sector into NASA. I've never given up on my
dream to get NASA space advertising off the ground. I've shared
my proposals, ideas and presentations with congressional
leaders, representatives of NASA, JPL and a lot of astronauts,
including Eugene Cernan, Harrison Schmidt, Buzz Aldrin, T.K.
Mattingly, James Lovell, Bill Shepherd, former NASA
administrator Dan Goldin, all of which over the years, I'm
proud to say, have become friends.
Last October, I presented my program to Representative Dana
Rohrabacher from the Congressional Space and Aeronautics
Committee Chairman, who told me he wholeheartedly supports
efforts and encourages that the Congress will work with the
senate in order to figure out ways to get these money through
the treasury into NASA and initiate programs like this.
I just hate to see NASA waste another 23 years and lose
another $5 billion or more. We need to work as a team to get
private sector sponsorships of the space program off the ground
so we can deliver on Ronald Reagan's challenge and fulfill
President Bush's mission to take our Nation back into space.
And I might add just on the testimony of NASA this morning,
which was very impressive in their comment that over 6 billion
people have gone to the website. Now, if NASA, to illustrate
how simple this is, would offer a photograph screen saver for
$1 to those people and 10 percent of those people took
advantage of that $1, the 5 percent that the Congress and the
Senate negotiated for to get into next year's NASA budget would
have been handed to NASA at no incremental cost in the last 90
days and at no cost to taxpayers.
There is a tremendous opportunity here and it's almost
irresponsible for this Committee and Congress to ignore at this
time with the deficit situation, the way we're trying to go
toward balanced budget and the interest of getting back to
Mars.
Thank you for allowing me to speak here today.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Lorsch follows:]
Prepared Statement of Robert H. Lorsch, Chief Executive Officer,
The RHL Group, Inc.
Good morning members of The Subcommittee. My name is Robert H.
Lorsch and I am CEO of The RHL Group, Inc. I am pleased to be here
today to discuss this very important opportunity. For more than 30
years I have specialized in marketing communications and my clients
have included all three major television networks, Johnson & Johnson,
Beatrice Foods, Sears, McDonald's, Northrop Grumman, Procter & Gamble
and Microsoft amongst others.
I have also been involved as a philanthropist promoting science
education as a Director and Trustee of the California Science Center,
whose gateway is the Robert H. Lorsch Family Pavilion. I have received
the ``C'' Flag Private Sector Initiative award from the White House for
my work in Earthquake Preparedness. As a businessman and philanthropist
I have raised in excess of ten million dollars for a variety of
charitable organizations, through direct contributions and numerous
national advertiser cause-related marketing programs, similar to the
concepts contained herein. My biography is included as a part of my
written submission.
In 1981, then President Ronald Reagan challenged government to work
with the private sector to create programs designed to return a portion
of the financial burden of government to business and industry.
I contacted his press secretary, Jim Brady, with an idea for a NASA
space advertising program of non-commercial sponsorship messages to be
placed inside the space shuttle.
The 1981 proposal suggested that for one million dollars, sponsors
or advertisers could place a message in a shuttle flight. The message
carried on a ``Plaque'' would be a non commercial supportive message of
NASA missions to be placed on an inside wall of the space shuttle,
which would be seen during broadcasts from the mission. As incentives,
each individual, company, foundation, or other organization would
receive benefits such as:
--A launch and landing party and dinner with NASA officials and
available members of Congress;
--Pictures of donors with astronauts and other dignitaries;
--Official letters of appreciation;
--The right to promote the companies sponsorship of NASA much
like a major Olympics sponsor;
Secretary Brady referred my program to Admiral Robert Garrick then
Deputy Counselor to the President at the White House. Working with
Admiral Garrick's office in conjunction with then Counsel to the
President Fred Fielding, I refined my plan when Chief of Staff Ed Meese
directed it be reviewed by NASA.
At that point the program made its way to the desk of James
Fanseen, then Assistant Administrator for NASA.
Mr. Fanseen greatly supported this program and worked over years to
help me ``get it off the ground'' with no success. It was rejected
primarily because there was no way for NASA to see any money, since
monies raised for a government agency would first go to the United
States Treasury and could not be directly allocated to the space
agency. Additionally there was a belief that the shuttle belonged to
the American people and no one had a right to commercialize it.
Numerous officials in NASA, Congress and the Senate encouraged me
then and now to stay with a space advertising program. I was approached
20 years later to participate in NASA's Dreamtime venture, which I
rejected and despite all good intentions did not meet its planned
objectives for tapping the commercial potential of the space program.
In 1984, I presented a revised and updated approach to the 1981
presentation. This presentation made with the support of the
administrator's office and the White House was formally presented to
Mr. Fanseen, Jesse Moore, Acting Assistant Administrator for Space
Flight, NASA's General Counsel and others.
Among the new aspects of this plan was an outline of how and when
sponsorship plaques could be broadcast. It included an example of a
non-commercial message. Incentives were more detailed. VIP tours at the
major space centers were added. The Smithsonian Air and Space Museum
was suggested as a place where sponsorship plaques might hang
permanently.
However despite all the encouragement, the program was again
rejected for similar reasons in 1984 and again after going back again
in 1989. Additionally I was told retaining the services of my agency
would need to be subject to open competition & the Armed Services
Procurement Act ignoring any intellectual property rights (common law
or otherwise) which I had accrued over the years through my numerous
writings & presentations.
Since the first Shuttle flight there have been 113 missions. If my
program had been implemented, the space program could have earned more
than five billion dollars, not counting Space Station opportunities.
This would have been enough money to have funded NASA's entire budget
in 1982 or nearly thirty five percent of it in 2003.
Additionally the messages of support (which now will never be seen)
would have reminded the public about the importance of the space
program in our daily lives without taking away the public's ownership
in any manner what so ever.
Last month President Bush announced a plan for this Nation to have
manned missions to go back to the Moon and Mars starting in 2014. NASA
estimates these programs will require expenditures of at least $170
billion. Hundreds of millions of dollars more will be needed to convert
all of NASA's ground-based and space-based video facilities to the HDTV
standard over the next decade. With an under funded NASA stuck where it
was in 1979 at eight tenths of one percent of the Federal budget this
financial challenge seems insurmountable. However, there is a way
upwards.
My written submission includes copies of my 1981 and 1984
presentations, along with a revised 2004 presentation. Working with
NASA, this program can become a reality starting now. And by 2008 that
reality can generate at least 100 million dollars for the ground and
space based facility upgrades with billions more in the works from
sponsors in support of NASA efforts to send America back to the Moon
and then to Mars.
In fact in 1999 NASA posted its own ``Commercial Space
Transportation Study'' on the web. In section 3.10.3.7 of NASA's own
document it says ``The use of launch vehicles as an advertising medium
is a newly evolving market with the potential to obtain substantial
revenues''. It discusses the opportunities for advertising in space
including orbiting billboards. Excerpts of which are also included in
my written submission. It is clear that times have changed and NASA now
recognizes the value of the intellectual properties I presented through
their own demonstrated efforts to find ways to initiate a space
advertising program.
NASA points to an agreement with Columbia Pictures to place an ad
for ``The Last Action Hero'' on the side of the Conestoga Comet launch
vehicle for five hundred thousand dollars while the Soviet space
program has already been supported by advertising from American
companies such as Pepsi. Why didn't those monies stay here?
I ask this Subcommittee to create a mechanism to get money from the
private sector into NASA to enable the next generation of spacecraft to
get off the ground.
I have never given up on my dream to get Space Advertising off the
ground. I have continued to share my proposals, ideas and presentations
with congressional leaders, representatives of NASA, JPL, and
astronauts including Eugene Cernan, Harrison Schmitt, Buzz Aldrin, T.K.
Mattingly, James Lovell, Bill Shepherd, and former NASA Administrator
Dan Goldin.
Last October, I presented my program to Representative Dana
Rohrabacher, Congressional Space & Aeronautics Chairman who recently
told me, ``I wholeheartedly support your efforts to help the U.S. space
program and am pleased that the Senate committee is taking such a
proactive interest in your ideas.''
Let's not waste another 23 years and lose another five billion
dollars or more. Let's work as a team to get private sector
sponsorships of the space program off the ground so we can deliver on
Ronald Reagan's Challenge and fulfill President Bush's mission to take
our Nation back into space.
I look forward to responding to any comments or questions you may
have.
______
Biography of Robert H. Lorsch
Los Angeles businessman, entrepreneur and philanthropist Robert H.
``Bob'' Lorsch's professional career spans over 35 years, mainly in
advertising and sales promotion.
For more than 20 years, Bob Lorsch served as President of Lorsch
Creative Network (LCN), a full-service advertising and sales promotion
agency specializing in merchandising, point-of-sale, games, contests,
sweepstakes and interactive marketing for corporate clients. LCN
blended advertising, sales promotion, marketing campaigns and
interactive telepromotions for ``blue chip'' national and international
clients, including the ABC, CBS and NBC television networks, Marvel
Entertainment, Caesars World, Inc., The Seven-Up Company, Campbell's
Soup, Procter & Gamble, Beatrice Foods, Johnson & Johnson, Taco Bell,
American Isuzu Motors, Northrop Grumman, McDonald's Corporation and
MCA/Universal, among many others. Lorsch also partnered with Pacific
Bell Information Services to build a voice mailbox system that is now
part of the popular WinFax product offerings. In late 1994, Lorsch co-
founded a prepaid long distance calling card company SmarTalk
TeleServices, Inc., which started in late 1994 with five thousand
dollars in capital and five people in a room above his garage. After
going public in 1996, the company became one of the largest providers
of prepaid telecommunications products and services in the world.
Lorsch served as CEO until February 1998, following which the company
was ultimately sold to AT&T in 1999.
Today, Lorsch continues to pursue entrepreneurial business
opportunities in the private sector through his investment and
development firm, The RHL Group, Inc. One of his companies,
www.yourdiscountdepot.com is an E-commerce enterprise that operates an
online store and auction site as well as markets offers from a network
of strategic partners.
Another of Lorsch's projects is Natural Products for Pets, Inc.,
which launched in October 2001 and is the exclusive manufacturer and
distributor of Dancing Paws, a popular pet nutrient system that
promotes optimum health and longevity. Offered at major retail
specialty stores and the Internet at www.dancingpaws.com, the Dancing
Paws line is produced at human dietary supplement plants requiring FDA
approval. In fall 2002, the company introduced its newest product,
``Breath-A-Licious,'' a dental treat for dogs that has met with huge
success.
Additionally The RHL Group is proud to have been an early stage
investor in the Series A, B and C rounds of CancerVax www.cancervax.com
a Biotechnology Company that completed its public offering in October
2003 (NASDAQ CNVX).
Whatever his role, Lorsch faces each endeavor with unparalleled
enthusiastic energy. One of his personal mantras is: ``To be average
scares the hell out of me.'' These words are inscribed on a sign that
has hung on his office door for more than 20 years. In the book,
Barbarians Led by Bill Gates, Lorsch is described as ``a marketing
mastermind'' and ``a magician who believed anything was possible and
simply wouldn't take no for an answer.''
One of Lorsch's marketing innovations involved his efforts in 1980
to sell advertising on the Space Shuttle to benefit NASA research
programs. This caught the attention of White House and NASA officials,
who encouraged him to get involved with the Museum of Science and
Industry in Los Angeles as well as other science museums across the
country. In February 1998, Vice President Albert Gore recognized
Lorsch's support of science and technology in his dedication of the new
California Science Center, which features the Robert H. Lorsch Family
Pavilion as the gateway to the Center. Lorsch also serves on the
California Science Center Foundation's Board of Trustees.
Lorsch has received numerous awards and proclamations for his
public spirit, including the prestigious ``C'' Flag Private Sector
Initiative award from the White House during the Reagan administration
for his work in raising millions for financing state and local
earthquake preparedness education. His efforts for this cause, which
include serving on numerous earthquake preparedness committees, have
also earned him awards from the City and County of Los Angeles, the
State of California and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
On June 5, 2002, Lorsch was again recognized by the City of Los
Angeles when the Los Angeles City Council adopted a resolution
commending the entrepreneur/philanthropist for his outstanding
charitable work and business acumen, and further honored him by
creating ``Bob Lorsch Day.''
Further, on June 12, 2002, Lorsch was appointed by the California
Gambling Control Commission to serve on its 10-member Gaming Policy
Advisory Committee. And on September 11, 2002, he received a state
appointment from Governor Gray Davis to serve on the nine-member
California Science Center Board of Directors for a four-year term.
In contributing a tremendous amount of time and energy toward
giving back to the community--a lesson he learned in his youth--Lorsch
also encourages clients, business associates and friends to give a
portion of their profits back to the community. His efforts have led to
raising millions of dollars for a variety of charitable organizations,
along which are numerous cause-related marketing programs he created
for national advertisers that have helped raise millions for
organizations such as the Special Olympics and others.
Among his many current charitable endeavors, Lorsch is a major
supporter of the John Wayne Cancer Institute, D.A.R.E. America, the
Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, the Thalians Mental Health
Center at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, The Los Angeles Police
Historical Society, the Starlight Children's Foundation, the Sheriff's
Youth Foundation, the VPI Skeeter Foundation, and the Muscular
Dystrophy Association, for which he serves as both a National Vice
President and President of the Los Angeles Chapter.
Over the last 18 months, Lorsch has been involved in helping the
Wildlife WayStation. www.wildlifewaystation.org, The WayStation is an
internationally acclaimed non-profit wildlife refuge in Southern
California's Angeles National Forest and the largest rescue facility of
its kind in North America. Currently home to 600 animal residents, The
WayStation has saved over 76,000 animals over the past 28 years from
certain death, with funding for its operations provided from the
private sector without taxpayer support. In his role as volunteer and
``Best Friend,'' Lorsch has committed his time and resources helping to
bring The WayStation into compliance by resolving issues with County,
State and Federal regulators. This year he led a series of legal and
political actions--including filing a successful court motion on behalf
of the chimp residents--while at the same time building The
WayStation's base of financial supporters. Lorsch has served the
wildlife sanctuary as its ``Best Friend'' during the most difficult
period in its history, and in November 2003, was named Chairman of its
Board of Directors.
Over the past five consecutive years, Lorsch has received six
humanitarian awards from the following charitable organizations: the
anti-drug, anti-violence organization D.A.R.E. America honored him in
1998 with its coveted Future of America Award at a dinner where he was
named D.A.R.E.'s ``Man of the Year.'' Lorsch was instrumental in
raising over $2 million for this organization at the dinner, which
represents the most successful fund raising event held by D.A.R.E. and
is among the most successful money-raising events honoring an
individual in the Los Angeles area. The Muscular Dystrophy Association
honored Lorsch in 1999 with its esteemed Humanitarian of the Year
award; the Southern California Chapter of the Asthma & Allergy
Foundation of America named him Humanitarian of the Year 2000; A Family
Celebration presented him with the Humanitarian of the Year award at
its 2001 gala, where he was joined onstage by fellow honorees President
Bill Clinton, President Gerald and Mrs. Betty Ford, and Sylvester
Stallone; and Starlight Children's Foundation honored him in April 2002
with the Golden Wish Award at its 19th annual gala hosted by Jamie Lee
Curtis. Most recently, in October 2003, Lorsch was honored by the
Wildlife WayStation with its ``Paws of Fame'' Humanitarian Award in
recognition of his philanthropy and unselfish dedication to the world-
renowned animal sanctuary. The presentation was made at the Ninth
Annual Safari Brunch held at the Playboy Mansion and was the
organization's most successful benefit in history.
Lorsch has been an arbitrator for the American Arbitration
Association and a member of the James Brady Presidential Foundation
and, also, the Fulbright Commission. He has been highlighted in
national and international newspapers, magazines and broadcast media,
and has been a featured speaker on telecommunications at forums
nationwide, including at MIT. Lorsch is 53 years old and is a resident
of Los Angeles for more than 33 years. He has one son, Jordan, who is
19 years old.
______
Some Sites That You May Be Interested In
www.yourdiscountdepot.com
www.dancingpaws.com
www.lorschland.com
www.wildlifewaystation.org
February 17, 2004 Presentation to Senator Brownback
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Senator Brownback. Thanks for that last example, too. I had
not thought through that but if you're going to get 6 billion
hits on a website----
Mr. Lorsch. 600 million people at a dollar, two screen
savers. I mean, that's $1.2 billion. That's nearly twice the
amount of money that NASA just wrestled to get its budget
increased in the next 12 months.
Senator Brownback. Thank you very much.
Mr. Lorsch. You're welcome, sir.
Senator Brownback. Look to act on that.
Mr. W.F. Mitchell, President of Altair Development
Corporation. Go ahead.
STATEMENT OF WILLIAM F. MITCHELL, PRESIDENT, ALTAIR DEVELOPMENT
CORPORATION AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE
OFFICER, NEO SAFETY INTERNATIONAL
Mr. Mitchell. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
At the end of this program, after everyone's through
testifying, our company will have a movie that you're welcome
to watch; it's a public outreach movie. There are some
important statements in the movie from Peter Diamandis, who's
one of our consultants. He's, as you know, founded the X Prize
and the Zero-G Corporation, which I'm a stockholder in.
I was inspired to study space when I was flying for Auburn
University as a college student back in the 1970s, when we were
landing on the Moon, which I've been studying it ever since,
and once proposed a private lunar development for NASA to
consider.
And much has been said here today about the future of our
children and in the movie that you will see and what I'm going
to talk about today, the future of our children is paramount in
my presentation. And so that I won't forget anything, Mr.
Chairman, I'll read it if you don't mind.
I applaud the new space policy. The new direction and
vision for the Nation is long overdue. Having a clear picture
of where to go and what to accomplish is the first step in any
challenging new endeavor. I believe the President's bold vision
is a worthy and honorable undertaking that our great nation has
the talent and the resources to make a reality. However, the
critics abound. Even some staunch GOP supporters are having
difficulty supporting the policy given the current large
military budgets needed to fight a worldwide war on terror and
the precarious status of many of our social programs due to
large budget deficits. The bottom line, as critics say, is that
we simply cannot afford this expensive vision solely to satisfy
our need to explore and fulfill our scientific curiosity.
But I believe that the critics can be quieted and a broad-
based support gained by acknowledging a far more serious reason
for our Nation to be in space. The Nation must develop space to
mitigate the threats of impacts by asteroids and comets. Only
now are we beginning to become fully aware of the true life-
and-death danger posed by these impact threats.
There is currently a large number of concerned scientists
around the world, international experts, that are studying the
danger of these impacts from near-earth objects. The attached
space defense manifesto is a result of a logical analysis of
that body of work. Most experts agree that it is not a question
of if but rather when the impact of an asteroid or comet will
cause a serious global disaster. The worse case scenario even
predicts the destruction of all life on earth.
The when is statistically just as likely to be now as it is
a thousand years from now. Therefore, we have an urgent and
compelling reason to act to protect ourselves, our children,
their children from this danger of neo impact.
Neo Safety International is a privately funded corporation
that was formed to facilitate and expedite the rapid
development of a space-based defensive system to protect the
planet from near-earth impacts. The business plan of the
corporation is in the early feasibility stage. However, some of
the preliminary aspects of the plan are: perform fast-track
reconnaissance missions to several asteroids to learn their
exact physical, chemical and mineral makeup; capture one or
more relatively small asteroids and convert the raw elements
into rocket fuel, structural materials and shielding devices
needed to build a larger material processing space craft; use
the asteroid to derive interceptor and material processing
spacecraft to intercept progressing larger asteroids and
convert them into incrementally larger interceptors and space
bases; use this building block method to build a reasonable
number of space bases and equip them with a fleet of neo
interceptors; strategically locate these bases at positions
within the inner solar system to reasonably assure ourselves
that we are capable of intercepting any and all threats from
comets and asteroids.
The first material processing base should be built at the
Moon's L1 Lagrange location and it should also facilitate the
development of a lunar base. The base should also be used to
stage the President's proposed Mars mission. The development of
this space defense system will be very difficult. Nevertheless,
developing this system is doable and absolutely necessary.
Some of the key ingredients needed to successfully create
the new infrastructure are to use Apollo space shuttle era,
off-the-shelf technology for the early missions and develop new
technologies as they are needed; acquire a large percentage of
the total mass needed to fuel and build these bases by mining
the asteroids themselves. Only a relatively small mass will be
launched from earth, i.e., food, computers, space suits, et
cetera; finance the early missions by selling the science
discovered on the asteroids to NASA and other interested
parties.
Command and control of all the interceptors will be by an
international military coalition. Individual interceptors will
be sold and/or leased to U.S. military and the militaries of
other nations working to protect the planet. The bases will be
a traditional real estate-type development with sales and
leases to various militaries, NASA, other space agencies and
industrial companies, commercial entities, universities,
research institutions, medical facilities and even individuals.
Many of the President's goals for NASA and the exploration
of space can be enhanced and enabled by developing resources
from asteroids. Byproducts of the defense system will be
availability of almost limitless quantities of radiation
shielding material, large supplies of low cost water and
propellant available in near-earth orbits, a vast array of
metals, glasses and other building materials will be for sale.
Other yet unknown finds will help service the new space
industry.
The project will be financed using techniques common to the
real estate and defense industry. Ownership of private
property, minerals and natural resources will be an essential
ingredient for success. Neo Safety International will assume
the development and financial risk. Our corporation will sell
and lease facilities to the U.S. military, NASA and as anchor
tenants. An international military and space agency coalition
will be co-anchors. Other target customers are industrial
enterprises and commercial entities. A few of the ways that
Congress can help in starting this project are enact enabling
legislation where needed, provide tax incentives to owners,
investors and lenders, direct NASA and the DOD to prioritize
and cooperate to create this defensive system, help create a
mutually assured protection, MAP, philosophy with other
nations, and ensure that private property rights and
intellectual property right laws are extended into the solar
system.
Exploring space for exploration's sake is no longer our
primary motivation. We now have a moral imperative. We must
develop space to ensure our survival and the survival of all
those who will follow. I also believe that the act of
developing this defensive system will spark a new space
industrial revolution that will pay for itself in the creation
of new wealth in sizes unimaginable in today's terms.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Mitchell follows:]
Prepared Statement of William F. Mitchell, President, Altair
Development Corporation and Chief Executive Officer, NEO Safety
International
Mr. Chairman and members of the Committee:
Thank you for this invitation to share my views on the President's
new space policy and to introduce NEO Safety International's efforts to
help achieve the President's space goals.
I applaud the new space policy. This new direction and vision for
the Nation is long overdue. Having a clear picture of where to go and
what to accomplish is the first step in any challenging new endeavor. I
believe the President's bold vision is a worthy and honorable
undertaking and that our great nation has the talent and the resources
to make it a reality.
However, critics of the space policy abound. Even some staunch GOP
supporters are having difficulty supporting the policy given the
current large military budgets needed to fight a world wide war on
terror and the precarious status of many of the nations social programs
caused by large budget deficits. The bottom line is critics say the
Nation simply cannot afford this expensive vision solely to satisfy our
need to explore and fulfill our scientific curiosity.
I believe the critics can be quieted and broad based support gained
by acknowledging a far more serious reason for our Nation to be in
space.
The nation must develop space to mitigate the threat of impacts by
asteroids and comets.
Only now are we becoming fully aware of the true life and death
danger posed by these impact threats. There is currently a large number
of concerned scientist and international experts studying the danger of
impacts from Near Earth Objects (NEO's). The attached Space Defense
Manifesto is the result of a logical analysis of that body of work.
Most experts agree that it is not a question of ``If'', but rather
``When'', the impact of an asteroid or comet will cause a serious
global disaster. The worst case scenario even predicts destruction of
all life on earth!
The ``When'' is statistically just as likely to be NOW as it is a
thousand years from now. Therefore, we have an urgent and compelling
reason to act to protect ourselves, our children and their children
from this danger of NEO impacts.
NEO SAFETY INTERNATIONAL is a privately funded corporation that was
formed to facilitate and expedite the rapid development of a space
based defensive system to protect the planet from NEO impacts. The
business plan of the corporation is in the early feasibility phase.
However, some of the preliminary aspects of the plan are;
Perform fast track reconnaissance missions to several
asteroids to learn their exact physical, chemical and mineral
makeup.
Capture one or more relatively small asteroids and convert
the raw elements into rocket fuel, structural materials and
shielding devices needed to build a larger material processing
spacecraft.
Use the asteroid derived interceptor and material processing
spacecraft to intercept progressively larger asteroids and
convert them into incrementally larger interceptors and space
bases.
Use this building block method to build a reasonable number
of space bases equipped with a fleet of NEO interceptors.
Strategically locate these bases at positions within the
inner solar system to reasonably assure ourselves that we are
capable of intercepting any and all threats from comets and
asteroids.
The first material processing base should be built at the
Moon's L1 Lagrange location and it should also facilitate the
development of a lunar base. This base should also be used to
stage the President's proposed Mar's missions.
The development of the space defense system will be very difficult
and challenging. Nevertheless, developing this system is doable and is
absolutely necessary. Some of the key ingredients needed to
successfully create the new infrastructure are;
Use Apollo/Space Shuttle era ``off the shelf'' technology
for all initial missions. New technologies will be developed as
needed.
Acquire a large percentage of the total mass needed for fuel
and building materials from the mining and processing of the
asteroids themselves. Only a relatively small mass will come
from the Earth, i.e., food, computers, spacesuits etc.
Finance the early missions by selling the science discovered
on the asteroids to NASA and other interested parties.
Command and control of all the interceptors will be by an
international military coalition.
Individual interceptors will be sold and or leased to the
U.S. Military and the militaries of other nations working to
protect the planet.
The bases will be a traditional real estate type development
with sales and leases to the various militaries, NASA, other
space agencies, industrial companies, commercial entities,
universities, research institutions, medical facilities and
individuals.
Many of the President's goals for NASA and the exploration of space
can be enhanced by developing resources from asteroids. Byproducts of
the defense system will be:
Availability of affordable and limitless quantities of
radiation shielding materials
Large supplies of low cost water and propellants available
in near earth orbits
A vast array of metals, glasses and other building materials
will be ``for sale''
Other yet unknown ``finds'' will help service the new space
industry
The project will be financed as a traditional real estate
development. Ownership of private property, minerals and natural
resources will be an essential ingredient for success. NEO Safety
International will assume the development and financial risk. Our
corporation will sell and lease facilities to the U.S. Military and
NASA as anchor customers and tenants. An International Military and
Space Agencies Coalition will be co-anchors. Other target customers are
industrial enterprises, commercial entities, universities, research
institutions, medical facilities, financial/service companies and
individuals.
A few ways that Congress can help in starting this project are:
Enact enabling legislation where needed
Provide Tax incentives to owners, investors and lenders
Direct NASA and the DOD to prioritize and cooperate to
create this defensive system
Help create a Mutually Assured Protection (MAP) philosophy
with other nations
Insure that private property rights and intellectual
property rights laws are extended into the solar system
Our motivation to master space needs to no longer be based on
exploration for exploration's sake. We now have a moral imperative. We
must develop space to insure our survival and the lives of all who will
follow. I also believe that the act of developing this defensive system
will also spark a new space industrial revolution that will pay for
itself in the creation of new wealth in sizes unimaginable it today's
terms.
Thank you Mr. Chairman and member of the Committee.
Attachment
Senator Brownback. Thank you, Mr. Mitchell. I appreciate
that. It was a very exact thought.
Mr. Courtney Stadd, President of Capital Solutions. Thanks
for joining us this morning.
STATEMENT OF COURTNEY A. STADD, PRESIDENT,
CAPITOL SOLUTIONS
Mr. Stadd. Yes, sir. Good morning, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.
And I also want to thank you for the leadership that you've
brought in terms of supporting the President's vision for NASA,
particularly the leadership you've shown supporting the role of
the private sector. It means an awful lot to us in the industry
and also I want to express appreciation for the fact that
you're holding a field hearing. I think, personally, it's so
important for leaders such as yourself, with very busy
schedules. And I know it's disruptive and I know sometimes the
transaction costs can be high. But actually leave Washington to
come down to meet with people, such as the people here at
Johnson Space Center, who are the people who actually make
things happen, along with the contractors. And I must add--
although I'm going to concentrate mostly on the entrepreneurs,
the new starts in my testimony--there's no shortage of
innovators and big contractors as well that populate the
neighborhood here who work hand in hand with the agency as
well.
And I'm looking over at General Warden. He and I worked in
the White House many years ago and it's also a tribute to you,
sir, that you've brought on my old colleague to this terrific
staff that supports the Committee.
Senator Brownback. Thank you. I've got to answer regarding
that, because I'm glad to have General Warden on the staff and
he had been around when we tried this once before and didn't
get it done; he was brought on to get this done. So, we've got
experience and I'm delighted to have the expertise of the
General and Baker, too.
Mr. Stadd. You've chosen well.
In interest of time, I'll make six points, Mr. Chairman.
First, the fledgling but very determined commercial sector is
eager to provide innovative solutions for space station
transportation for logistics and transportation support.
Accordingly, I'm very pleased to see the $140 million that NASA
has set aside for the space station crew and cargo services to
purchase space station transportation services. And NASA should
be strongly supported in its efforts to direct the bulk of
these funds to U.S. commercial suppliers.
The alternative to commercial competition is that NASA and
its space station partners will devote critical resources to
providing unmanned logistics support that could be done by the
private sector and that would be a loss for everyone.
The American entrepreneur firms are also eager to respond
to the small payload demonstration program that is intending to
use emerging launch suppliers to fly unflown NASA instruments
to other small payloads. These are very, very important new
initiatives.
Another exciting initiative that was referred to me by
former colleagues at NASA on the first panel is the Centennial
Challenges Program. That is requesting, I believe, 20 million
annual prizes. It is my understanding that in order for this
program to be established, it will require this committee to
provide the same type of authorization to NASA that the defense
advanced research projects agency has as well and, in fact, is
using for its own more modest prize efforts as we meet here
today.
So, I would ask the Committee and the staff to, please,
focus specifically on how the agency executes this program
because done right it could represent no less than a paradigm
shift in how the agency deals with the private sector.
Third point, it is a purely nonscientific observation, but
I would say that the current cycle of entrepreneurs and like my
colleague, Charlie Chafer, I've lived through several cycles
over the past 30 years although very much in the startup stage
that's been driven by, frankly, more sophisticated players and
capital that have learned from the trials and tribulations of
their predecessors. A case in point, quite frankly, is Charlie
Chafer's Team Encounter engineering team that worked with some
unsung heroes in bureaucratic trenches at NASA to make his
effort and his company's effort come to fruition.
Another case in point is an entrepreneur that I'm working
closely with and that is Robert Bigelow, who's founder of
Bigelow Aerospace, a 5-year-old Nevada-based space company,
developing expandable or better known as inflatable space
module technology that is based from the Trancept Project,
which was started right down this street at the Johnson Space
Center several years ago. We had to, frankly, terminate that
program based on budget, not technical merit, a few years back.
But the idea behind these modules is to build radically
low-cost modules that could be placed in one with orbit and
ultimately, perhaps, even be habitates in other planetary
surfaces in years to come.
Mr. Bigelow has never taken one dollar of Federal contract
money. He's spent 30 years in the construction/real estate
business and any of you who have worked in that business know
it's a very, very competitive field; but he's a gentleman,
also, who was inspired in his teen years to invest in space and
now that he's in a position to invest a good part of his
personal wealth, he's doing just that. And it's his hope that
he'll actually have these commercial modules initially in place
by the end of the decade.
I do know that he would want me to put on the record the
support that he's received from the Johnson Space Center,
particularly the director General Howell, who personally went
out to visit Bigelow Aerospace facilities. We have a Space Act
agreement with the agency and there has been a sharing of
technical expertise with the center that has just been going
tremendously. In addition, I believe this reflects the
presumption now at NASA headquarters to support more and more
of these commercial type of efforts.
Potential uses of these modules could range from
biotechnology to Earth observation and space tourism. By the
way, in pursuing this capability in low-Earth orbit, it is
imperative that the United States Government/private sector
develop vehicles capable of bringing people and cargo to lower
orbit. I'll get back to that in a second.
Elon Musk, quite familiar to this agency, is another
gentleman who came from a different sector, in his case the
Internet, who's bringing considerable wealth investing his
Space X Corporation to develop a very low-cost vehicle; and it
is a credit to the Department of Defense that they're willing
to put a payload on the very first Falcon rocket scheduled to
launch this spring. And it is precisely these types of rockets
that, I think, NASA should be supportive in its efforts to put
experimental payloads and help these new companies achieve
credibility.
These two entrepreneurs are just two examples of an
increasingly diverse community of space entrepreneurship but I
also want to express my excitement for other companies, such as
Zero-G Corporation, and the space adventurers that are seeking
to expose the marketplace to the experience of weightlessness.
And, although, the growth of space tourism, Mr. Chairman,
merely is now part of NASA's new mission, it will be of immense
benefit, frankly, to the agency, to the government in the sense
of strengthening and diversifying the aerospace industrial
space by bringing the excitement of space travel to the wider
public, including those young people you referred to in the
hearing.
And I'd like to comment to the Committee, if I may, that a
review of HR3752 introduced by Congressman Dana Rohrabacher and
recently passed on the House Science Committee that calls for a
balanced regulatory framework for space tourism.
Fourth point is that I wish I was in a position to tell the
Committee how it and the agency could support and encourage
each of these entrepreneurs, but each entrepreneurial project,
in many ways, has its own unique needs; and, therefore, must be
dealt with on a case-by-case basis. The critical issue is that
NASA officials who are responsible for dealing with these
entities must be given the freedom and the support to deal with
new, sometimes risky companies in a flexible and creative
fashion. And, again, I emphasize it is so important for the
Committee, with your leadership, sir, the other members of the
staff, to remain actively engaged in this process over the long
term and provide the even moral support for officials who, when
you're dealing with the risky world of entrepreneurship,
occasionally we will experience problems and failures; but to
provide the support that allows them to continue to go on.
And, Mr. Chairman, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the
burdensome role of the export control laws. I know I'd probably
fill the hearing room with studies and commission reports on
how outdated many of the export control laws are. So, I would
urge the Committee to review our space-related export control
laws to identify those, in fact, that have become obsolete and
sometimes hurt more than they help our security and business
interest.
In the wake of the President's announcement, I also believe
that there may, in fact, be investors who might explore
negotiating with the agency an exclusive marketing and
brokering arrangement for the U.S. portion of the space station
for a specific period of time. Again, a concept like this would
be feasible only if there is genuine interest by the United
States Government to such a proposal. If NASA and its prime
contractor base move on to implement the exploration strategy
beyond lower Earth orbit, perhaps now is a great, opportune
time to explore innovative ideas in how the commercial sector
might want to utilize the space station capabilities to its
fullest extent.
And the gentleman to my right, Mr. Lorsch, certainly has
provided an example of the type of innovation that happens when
you allow creative individuals like himself the license to
pursue that type of opportunity; but whether or not this
specific opportunity goes anywhere, my point is that today's
challenges can become win-win opportunities if the government
is seriously open to new approaches for the private sector.
And, finally, sir, the President's direction to NASA has
opened new opportunities by which government and industry can
learn from one another, thus, maximize the chances of this new
vision actually become reality, while giving birth to a robust,
diverse and competitive U.S. and industrial base with major
benefits for a nation in the future of humanity. And I must say
that for those colleagues of yours who are skeptical, I would
really urge them to go review the Commission that was chartered
by Congress 2 years ago----
Senator Brownback. Right.
Mr. Stadd.--the future of this huge industrial sector,
involving a former colleague, of course, Congressman----
Senator Brownback. Bob Walker.
Mr. Stadd.--Bob Walker, who was the Chairman, who laid out
in very stark terms the state of our industrial base and
aerospace today and it's not a very good situation. And I think
one of the benefits of this new vision is that it can help
vitalize that base because as that report makes clear, as we
sit here today, Tokyo, Paris, Berlin, other capitals of the
world, India, China, of course, are being very aggressive, very
active in pushing their respective industrial base as well.
And, frankly, a key concern for the commercial sector is
whether the U.S. Government will ultimately follow through with
a promise of a new policy.
Thank you, again, for the opportunity to be here; and I
look forward to answering whatever questions you may have, sir.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Stadd follows:]
Prepared Statement of Courtney A. Stadd, President, Capitol Solutions
Mr. Chairman, and members of the Committee, I greatly appreciate
the opportunity to participate in this hearing regarding the
President's newly announced space policy and especially to discuss the
prospects for private sector interest in space-related activities,
including launch vehicle development and the International Space
Station.
I would like to begin my statement with an excerpt from an essay
drafted by one of my space clients, Robert Bigelow, about whom I have
more to say later in my testimony. If you go to his company's website
at www.bigelowaerospace.com and click on ``space commerce'' you can
access the full text. I think its sentiments are highly relevant to
today's hearing.
``Two hundred years after the Lewis and Clark expedition
America continues to explore new frontiers. The manned space
program of the late twentieth century has opened the door to
almost limitless possibilities. Yet, despite the brave efforts
and sacrifice of astronauts, both American and Russian, the
U.S. and other nations have failed to capitalize on the hard
earned achievements of the national space programs. As was the
case 200 years ago, exploring the frontier was relatively
simple when compared with the difficulties of surviving and
profiting in a new and hostile environment.
Unlike past space endeavors, settling and developing space
cannot be accomplished by government programs and personnel.
The U.S. Government could fund and order Lewis and Clark to
explore the West, but it could not pay or force pioneers to
settle the region. Governments do have an important role to
play in creating an environment conducive to space development,
but it is the pioneering entrepreneurs, not the soldiers or
bureaucrats, who can take and colonize a new frontier.''
A little over a year ago, we mourned the tragic loss of the Space
Shuttle Columbia and its heroic crew. The investigation that followed
blamed not only technical and communication problems within NASA, but
called out the absence of a compelling strategic vision for our
Nation's civil space program. January 14th marked a major milestone in
the Nation's civil space adventure when the President committed the
Nation to a new bearing point and a renewed strategic direction in
space. His vision now takes humankind beyond the confines of the low
earth orbit we have occupied for decades, and draws our attention out
into the distant universe, and the next logical destinations for
humanity, including the Moon, Mars and beyond.
The President's new space policy is a tribute to both the Columbia
astronauts and future generations of American pioneers. I am the father
of two teenagers and I can tell you that they and their friends'
imaginations were really fired up by the combination of the President's
speech and the extraordinary technical achievements of the Mars
rovers--Spirit and Opportunity. The prospect that members of their
generation might one day actually walk on another planetary surface
even managed to cause some of them, however briefly, to think outside
themselves and focus on a higher calling. No small miracle in itself!
The President's plan responds to what many in the space community
have been calling for in recent years: A bold new vision for NASA that
lays out measured, pragmatic, evolutionary steps as the path for
achievement of the goals he broadly outlined. Achievement of those
goals will require a number of ambitious capabilities to be developed
and demonstrated. We in private industry are greatly encouraged by
NASA's recognition that it will be looking to the commercial sector for
critical products and services in pursuing this exciting new road map.
And make no mistake: there is ample room for significant contributions
by entrepreneurs, private sector investors and commercial companies who
see the benefits of supplying products, services and technology for
space-related markets.
Change, of course, often serves as a catalyst for innovation and
new out-of-the-box ideas in the way we do things. By their very nature,
entrepreneurs view ``change'' as a chance to translate challenge into
profitable opportunities. This is why, frankly, so many American space
entrepreneurs are embracing the period of potential change set in
motion by the President's policy announcement.
I have spent nearly thirty years of active involvement in the U.S.
civil and commercial space communities--working in both the public and
private sectors. With that said, I have also learned that it is nearly
impossible to craft a national policy that satisfies all the various
and sundry stakeholders. There will always be ``rice bowls'' who resist
change when new priorities are set, such as those who may have a vested
interest in preserving certain NASA programs that will be terminated or
redirected as a result of the new vision. There will also be those that
are frustrated by what they may view as an overly deliberate,
evolutionary approach to realizing the President's goals. From this
particular stakeholder's vantage point, however, I think the President
and NASA have offered a compelling and exciting vision that is both
pragmatic and executable, costing less than one percent of the annual
Federal budget. At the same time, it offers a range of exciting
opportunities for private industry whose resources can help leverage
and expand the investment of taxpayer dollars in the space program.
Before proceeding to discuss specific potential private sector
interest in supporting the civil space program in areas such as launch
vehicle development and the Space Station, allow me to underscore that
the interdisciplinary nature of the new space exploration vision will
require innovative technologies and breakthroughs in areas with huge
potential impact on our economic competitiveness. These include major
industrial sectors such as communications, robotics, materials,
computing and automation, biotechnology and life sciences, power and
propulsion, and networking.
As the Congressionally-charted ``Commission on the Future of the
U.S. Aerospace Industry'' (November 2002) made clear, our domestic
aerospace infrastructure is severely undermined by a shortage of
engineers and scientists, as well as foreign subsidized competition.
The Commission's Executive Summary lays it out in stark terms: ``The
industry is confronted with a graying workforce in science, engineering
and manufacturing . . . New entrants to the industry have dropped
precipitously to historical lows as the number of layoffs in the
industry mount . . . We note with interest how other countries that
aspire for a great global role are directing intense attention and
resources to foster an indigenous aerospace industry. This is in
contrast to the attitude present here in the United States. We stand
dangerously close to squandering the advantage bequeathed to us by
prior generations of aerospace leaders. We must reverse this trend and
march steadily towards rebuilding the industry.'' Scientists and
engineers initially attracted to work on space exploration programs
will likely also go on to build the next generation Global Positioning
System (GPS) satellites, missile defense systems, and laser
communications satellites.
I would respectfully suggest, Mr. Chairman, that your colleagues in
Congress, should debate the merits of this new exploration vision in
the broader context of providing this Nation a much overdue opportunity
to revitalize our aerospace sector and return the U.S. to a leadership
position in an area that has such important national economic and
security implications.
With the primary focus of the Space Shuttle on completing the
assembly of the Space Station, the commercial sector is eager to
provide innovative solutions for Space Station transportation,
logistics and research support. There are several start-up companies,
such as Constellation Services, Inc., and Kistler Aerospace that are
offering to provide such services. This category of company includes
those who are using private sector capital in seeking NASA as an
``anchor tenant'' in pursuit of both government and commercial market
business opportunities. Accordingly, I am very pleased to see that NASA
has included $140 million for a new project, ISS Crew and Cargo
Services, to purchase Space Station transportation services. Although I
understand that foreign suppliers may provide some of these services,
NASA should be supported in its efforts to direct the bulk of these
funds to U.S. commercial suppliers to develop services to meet Space
Station cargo transport needs.
It is important for NASA to ensure that it offers truly competitive
opportunities for industry, including start-up ventures; rather than
utilizing the procurement process to prejudge the outcome for preferred
suppliers of products and services. It is equally important for this
Committee and its counterparts in the House to give NASA the resources
and even moral support it will need to sometimes take the risk on new
entrants and engage alternative commercial suppliers of space goods and
services. In that regard, American entrepreneurial firms are eager to
respond to the $10 million Small Payload Demonstration Program that is
intended to use emerging launch suppliers to fly unflown NASA
instruments or other small payloads; while also assisting these new
firms to establish their credibility as providers of new commercial
vehicles to meet future NASA needs. The alternative to commercial
competition is that NASA and its International Space Station partners
will continue to devote critical attention to providing unmanned
logistics support that could be done by the private sector. That would
be a loss for everyone.
From a commercial standpoint, Mr. Chairman, an exciting new
initiative in the NASA budget is the Centennial Challenges Program.
This initiative was partly inspired by the success of the X-Prize
Foundation, which is offering $10 million for the first team that
launches a vehicle capable of carrying three people (or one person and
ballast weight for two others) on a suborbital trajectory to 100-
kilometers or 62-miles and repeats the flight within two weeks. I
understand that approximately 27 entrants representing seven countries
are competing for the prize. It is fair to say that a $10 million prize
has caused tens of millions of dollars to be invested by the private
sector in pursuit of a wide variety of innovative launch vehicle
concepts. For me, this is a dramatic illustration of how much dynamic
energy and creativity is available in the commercial space sector.
The Centennial Challenges Program invests $20 million in a series
of annual prizes for revolutionary, breakthrough accomplishments from
innovators not usually affiliated with the space program. It is my
understanding that in order for the Centennial Challenge program to
``take off'' it will require that this Committee authorize NASA to have
similar prize-making authority that the Defense Advanced Research
Projects Agency (DARPA) currently enjoys. Examples of potential
candidate programs include nano-materials, very low cost robotic space
missions and spacecraft power systems. It is well known that during the
Apollo program breakthrough innovations often came from unexpected
sources; therefore we need to create ``on ramps'' for creative
individuals and small entrepreneurial teams. The key to this program's
success, however, is to ensure minimal bureaucratic intrusion and
efforts by ``rice bowls'' to vector the resources into programs that
perpetuate the status quo versus truly advancing unorthodox inventions
and ideas. Accordingly, I would urge this Committee to pay special
attention to how the Agency executes this potentially exciting program.
Done right it could represent no less than a paradigm shift in how the
Agency works with the private sector.
Over the past three decades, I have personally witnessed several
cycles in which private capital--either in the form of institutional or
high net worth individuals--have tried to develop various space launch
and payload concepts for commercial and/or government markets. Every
cycle has been characterized by its share of firms poorly managed (in
that sense, the commercial space business is no different than other
business sectors) or those who fall into the trap of mistaking
technical possibility for market opportunity, or those who are
essentially using taxpayer money to sell to the government under the
guise of ``commercialization''. It is my purely non-scientific
observation that the current cycle, although very much in the start-up
stage, is being driven by more sophisticated players and capital who
have learned from the trials and tribulations of their predecessors.
There are multiple signs that capital formation is interested in space
activities and even defense and space services, and that capital
markets are becoming healthy again.
Although I do not profess to be an expert on the capital markets,
the Nation's pension funds, banks, and insurance companies appear to
have re-energized their private equity and debt investments into
venture and other forms of capital management in the past two years.
Venture firms are showing signs of stability as well as a penchant for
many of the nano-technology, life sciences, power sources, power
technologies and other fundamental technical areas required for support
of new space exploration missions.
Last quarter, the venture capital industry invested $4.9 billion
into new ventures, a level of investment activity that is the highest
in the past eighteen months. This level of investing is expected to
continue based on the increase in the availability of capital and deal
flow for the foreseeable future, approximately $20 billion a year. Even
more significant is the steady amounts of capital being raised by
venture capital firms and other private sector institutions for
investments into new high tech opportunities.
In terms of high net worth individuals who are investing their
personal wealth into commercial space-related projects, I am associated
with Robert Bigelow, President and founder, Bigelow Aerospace, a five-
year-old Nevada-based space company that is developing expandable space
module technology based on the Transhab project which was managed down
the street at the Johnson Space Center until it was terminated for
budget reasons a few years ago. Mr. Bigelow has never taken one dollar
of government contract money. He brings to his space venture over three
decades of true competitive commercial business experience in the
construction, engineering and contracting fields.
Since early 1999, Mr. Bigelow has been aggressively investing his
own resources in building his company's expertise, capabilities, key
partnerships and hardware. Bigelow Aerospace has been developing its
capabilities within a Space Act Agreement with NASA that allows for a
sharing of knowledge and expertise between the two parties involving no
exchange of funds. When I informed Mr. Bigelow that I would be making a
statement to this Committee, he requested that I underscore his praise
for the Johnson Space Center Director, Jefferson Howell, under whose
leadership Bigelow Aerospace has benefited greatly from the cooperation
it has received from JSC. Such cooperation also appears to reflect the
overall policy support for commercial space initiatives, such as
Bigelow Aerospace, that is coming from NASA Headquarters.
BA is pursuing its expandable space module technology based on the
belief that such modules might drastically reduce the costs of living
and working in the low earth orbit (LEO) environment. Potential uses
include biotechnology research, earth observation, space tourism and
other applications that we are pursuing on a proprietary basis. Such
modules could, of course, eventually be utilized as habitats on other
planetary surfaces. In pursuing this capability in low earth orbit, it
is imperative that the U.S. develop space vehicles capable of bringing
people and cargo to and from LEO. The current grounding of the Space
Shuttle fleet has revealed the unfortunate reliance of the U.S. on the
only alternate human carrier, the Russian Soyuz spacecraft, which makes
it a single point of failure. Further, it is a fundamental rule of
business to avoid negotiating in a situation where the other party has
the upper hand in terms of being the sole supplier of a critical
service. In this instance, the Russians hold some key ``Aces''. It is
therefore in the self-interest of the U.S. to encourage private sector
cargo and human rated launch initiatives. As noted earlier, NASA plays
a critical role in encouraging the emergence of private sector
alternatives.
Elon Musk, who is familiar to this Committee, is another example of
an entrepreneur who comes from a non-space industry sector (in his
case, the Internet) who has founded SpaceX to develop a new family of
low cost Falcon launch vehicles that are currently priced to cost less
than half the price of similar launch vehicles due to competitive
pricing and through the use of reusable first stage rocket engines. It
is to the credit of the Department of Defense that it has placed a
payload on board the company's first launch--currently scheduled for
late spring of this year. SpaceX's Falcon rockets are precisely the
type of vehicles that NASA should consider for some of its own
experimental payloads. Based on my own informal discussions with Mr.
Musk, he is similar to Mr. Bigelow in that they both have immersed
themselves in the arcane science and engineering associated with their
respective space businesses, are aggressively recruiting the best and
brightest technical minds and are investing their own significant
wealth in bringing to the aerospace marketplace business strategies
that have served them well in their previous commercial businesses.
These two space entrepreneurs are but two examples of the small but
growing community of individuals and companies that are pursuing space-
related opportunities. I am also excited by the potential of companies,
such as Zero-G Corporation and Space Adventures, that are seeking to
expose the marketplace to the experience of weightlessness. (As someone
who has experienced zero-g on NASA's KC-135 I can testify that the
experience is sufficiently exhilarating that I would relish the chance
to experience it on a sustained basis in space.) The successful growth
of space tourism while clearly not a part of NASA's new mission, would
be of enormous benefit to NASA in strengthening and diversifying the
aerospace industrial base while bringing the excitement of space travel
to the wider public. I would like to commend to the Committee that it
review H.R. 3752, introduced by Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, and
recently passed by the House Science Committee, that calls for a
balanced regulatory framework for space tourism. These entrepreneurs
are demonstrating that the private sector can potentially augment the
government's efforts to open the space frontier for the full expression
of the human enterprise.
I wish that I were in a position to tell the Committee specifically
how they and the Agency could support and encourage the work of these
entrepreneurs. The reality is that each entrepreneurial project will
have its own unique needs, and therefore they must be dealt with on a
case-by-case basis. For example, Bigelow Aerospace could potentially
benefit from NASA launching one of its sub-scale demonstrator modules,
whereas I'm sure SpaceX would jump at an opportunity to receive a
contract for a NASA launch. The critical issue is that the NASA
officials who are responsible for dealing with these entities must be
given the freedom and support to deal with new entrepreneurial
companies in a flexible and creative fashion. Moreover, this Committee
too can play a critical role in providing the resources and relevant
Agency oversight to ensure that NASA is fulfilling its commitment to
leverage private sector opportunities to the greatest extent possible.
Again, I cannot emphasize how important it is for this Committee, its
Members and staff to remain engaged in this process over the long term.
Additionally, I would be remiss if I failed to mention the burden
that current export control laws place on new entrepreneurs. No doubt,
I could fill this hearing room with various academic studies and
Commission reports that document the negative competitive effects of
the current export licensing regime on the U.S. aerospace sector. The
emerging space companies often depend upon the low-cost alternatives
that foreign aerospace organizations can provide. One of the key
recommendations from the ``Commission on the Future of the U.S.
Aerospace Industry'' was that ``U.S. export control regulations must be
substantially overhauled. . . .'' I feel strongly that the time has
come for this Committee and Congress to conduct a comprehensive review
of our space-related export control laws in order to identify rules
that have become obsolete and hurt more than they help both American
security and business interests.
Mr. Chairman, I would like to raise another possible way the
commercial sector might assist our government in leveraging its highly
constrained resources. In the wake of the President's announcement, I
really think that there may be investors who might explore negotiating
with NASA an exclusive marketing and brokering arrangement for the U.S.
portion of the Space Station for a specific period of time. Again, a
concept like this would be feasible only if there is genuine interest
by the government in such a proposal. Such an initiative is based on
the view that NASA has demonstrated engineering brilliance in
construction and deployment of the Space Station. But as NASA and its
prime contractor base move on to implement the exploration strategy,
perhaps now is an opportune time to explore innovative ideas for how
the American commercial sector might be able to utilize the Space
Station capability to its fullest extent. Specifically, the potential
may exist to establish a structure whereby the Agency would receive
royalties based on the profits generated by a private sector ISS
initiative. These royalties might well help partially reimburse the
government for the tax-payer's investment in ISS, and perhaps over the
long term could fund improvements to the Station and/or be leveraged to
support the President's vision of exploration beyond LEO. Whether or
not this specific initiative goes anywhere, my point is that today's
challenges can become win-win opportunities if the government is
seriously open to new approaches with the private sector.
In addition to private sector sources of capital, there is an
increasing interest on the part of state and local government
organizations to partner with NASA to assist in financing new services.
For example, several state-based commercial spaceports have used their
own resources to leverage infrastructure investments for both private
and public sector uses. Speaking of innovative public-private
partnerships in space, it is worth noting that private investors
recently financed a Norwegian satellite data center that supports and
is an integral part of U.S. defense and space activities. A private
placement was raised, which enabled both U.S. and Norwegian governments
to access a critical service, without seeking new appropriated dollars
from the Congress. Under the financing mechanism, which raised over $40
million dollars, the government is estimated to be saving up to $2.5
million per year for the first few years, and as much as $7 million for
the remaining 20 years.
Such third party and state supported financings are making inroads
into many sectors of government involvement, especially in defense and
energy, which depend heavily on outsourced services and private
financing. There is no reason why such a model could not be utilized in
the space arena.
Finally, Mr. Chairman, I must admit that when I first started in
the commercial space sector my colleagues and I had fervently hoped
that we would be much further ahead in the development of commercial
space markets than we are today. In retrospect, I believe that we
neglected a fundamental rule of the marketplace: Markets usually change
over extended periods of time as customers and providers become slowly
educated and acclimated to the advantages of new products and services.
A case-in-point was the slow evolution of the marketplace before Global
Position System (GPS) applications reached ``critical mass'' with a
global commercial customer base. A technology that began commercially
as a more efficient means of conducting land surveys now brings
Information Technology-based productivity to an astonishing array of
global infrastructures--from telephones to trucking and aviation to
power lines.
The President's direction to NASA has opened new opportunities by
which government and industry can learn from one another and thus
maximize the chances that the new vision actually becomes reality while
giving birth to a robust, diverse and competitive U.S. space industrial
base with major benefits for our Nation and the future of humanity.
America's space entrepreneurs, who reside in both small and large
companies, are poised once again to bring the promise of space to
fruition. Frankly, a major challenge is whether the U.S. Government
will ultimately follow-through on the promise of the new policy.
Thank you again for the opportunity to be here today and I look
forward to any questions you may have.
______
Courtney A. Stadd: Profile
Mr. Stadd is President, Capitol Solutions, a management consulting
firm located in the Washington, DC, area. In July 2003, after nearly
three years, he resigned his position as Chief of Staff and White House
Liaison for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. He led
President Bush's NASA transition team and worked with the NASA
Administrator to cast the agency's strategic direction. Mr. Stadd had
chief responsibility for developing and executing turn-around plans,
budgets and staffing that addressed the major financial and management
challenges facing NASA's high-profile $15 billion research and
development activities.
For the past 26 years, Mr. Stadd has worked in both the private and
public arenas with a primary focus on identifying and removing barriers
to market-driven opportunities in aerospace-related technology areas.
In the previous Reagan and Bush Administrations, he has held senior
space-related program management and policy positions in the U.S.
Department of Commerce, the U.S. Department of Transportation and the
White House National Space Council.
In the private sector, he was affiliated with the establishment of
several satellite and space transportation ventures, such as Colorado-
based DigitalGlobe, an industry leader in providing high-resolution
commercial satellite imagery. Over the past twenty-five years, in both
official and private capacities, he has been invited by various U.S.
Congressional committees to testify on a range of high technology-
related public policy matters.
He has been the recipient of numerous industry and government
awards including the 2002 U.S. Space Foundation certificate of honor
for his contributions to advancing ``the greater cause of the
exploration and development of space.'' In 2001, Mr. Stadd was awarded
NASA's highest honor--The Distinguished Service Medal for ``his
extraordinary vision, leadership, and dedication to . . . advancing
technology into industry.''
Senator Brownback. All right. I think that's a good way to
put it. This isn't just about an expenditure of money on a
mission. It can be about vitalizing and energizing a whole
industrial sector; and to me, one of the keys here is that I
want to see that private capital coming in and the reward
coming back with that growth and opportunity with it.
Well put. Thanks.
I have to call up a story. I had a chance to visit Dennis
Tito, who had paid Russia, what, $20 million to do space
tourism and he, like so many of us, wanted to go to space. As a
young man, he was an aerospace engineer or something of that
nature. He worked at Jet Propulsion Laboratory, then left and
made a lot of money, but still wanted to go to space. So, he
paid for the ride. I believe there's a huge sector of the
population willing to pay pretty substantial fees to experience
weightlessness and see the world from that perspective. He gave
me a really interesting little vignette, though. He was saying
that when he was up there it was really an incredible
experience to him and he said he noted at one point in time
that he now understands all those pictures of angels that he
saw as a child, which didn't make any sense to him because he
thinks as an aerospace guy, he said, the wings are too small on
all the pictures of these angels. He said in weightlessness you
just need little wings; I understand.
It was an interesting vignette that he gave.
Mr. Chafer, I hope you'll provide to us specifics on what
we need to do to put in any authorizing language to make sure
the private sector has access to work in these areas because we
really do want to do this mission in a different way; and I
think for it to work it has to be done in a different way of
going to the Moon and to Mars.
So, I hope you'll provide to us or your group of your
specific areas that the authorizing legislation language needs
to be different and we'll, hopefully, work with you, excuse me,
we will work with you on that.
Mr. Chafer. Happy to do so, sir.
Senator Brownback. You said that we haven't been open in
the past. Is that different now? Is there anything we need to
do now to make sure that that is different now?
Mr. Chafer. It ebbs and flows and I think that the biggest
challenge is that it's so personnel dependent that there's
adequate authority to do almost anything under the 1958 Space
Act, so that you're looking at the only person in the world
that's bought a Minuteman Missile from the U.S. Government. We
did that from NASA. Launched it off Matagorda Island under Deke
Slayton's leadership and created the first privately launched
rocket into space when there were no regulations, but 11
separate agencies gave us the approval. We had to go 11 for 11
to do that.
Senator Brownback. Wow.
Mr. Chafer. So, there's almost always the ability to
accomplish things and I use the example of Courtney and Dr. Ed
Weiler who wanted to do those things. What I sense today is, as
Courtney said, there's more sophistication in the private
sector and, therefore, there's a greater willingness in the
government sector to look at these alternatives.
My largest concern is that you almost always bump into
situations where you may well be competing with each other, the
government and the private sector; and we have such scarce
resources. We need to find ways not to compete. That was
certainly true back in the early launch vehicle days when the
space shuttle was being designed as a way to launch all
satellites for everyone and here we were, a group of a few
people in Texas wanting to launch rockets.
So, there's great risk that the power of the government,
while well-intentioned, can end up foreclosing commercial
investment; and, again, I think it's a sensitive issue. I know
it's not a clean, easy answer, such as a piece of legislation;
but I think Courtney nailed it by saying this Committee can
encourage the agencies and the leaders in the agencies to be
open to commercial activity. And if that occurs, we'll see some
of these little flowers bloom into very large plants and you'll
begin to get people working together. And there's nothing like
the real-world experience of working together to give each
other confidence and the success of these co-developed
missions.
Senator Brownback. Do you have an official advisory
committee to NASA or to the space community that private sector
interfaces with to give these thoughts to?
Mr. Chafer. I'm unaware of one.
Senator Brownback. All right.
Mr. Chafer. There may well be. We've not been asked to come
and speak to it but I think that would be great.
Senator Brownback. I just would like to institutionalize--
--
Mr. Chafer. Yes, sir.
Senator Brownback.--this dialogue more. Maybe that's one of
the things we could put in authorizing legislation that we have
a private sector advisory committee. I'd like to give them more
power than just advisory, so that the Administrator has to
listen to it or has to meet with them. The administrator,
whoever he or she is, has to meet with them two or three times
a year, so, to make sure that that's happening at a high-level
dialogue.
Mr. Chafer. I think that would be a great idea. We'd love
to participate in that.
Senator Brownback. Bob, you lit my fuse or sent my rocket
off here with thinking we missed out on $5 billion that could
have gone into the space program.
Mr. Lorsch. Let me light your fuse about a hundred million
dollars that is on the table of this subcommittee probably
within the next 6 months if you want to take a look at it. You
know, we talked about encouraging entrepreneurship and private
sector initiatives and I didn't mean to interrupt you in the
middle of your stream of thought, Senator.
But my fuse is lit as well here today. So, I hope you don't
mind if I say this. Things can be done now. We have a space
shuttle mission that's going to go sometime soon. There's going
to be a tremendous amount of public interest in that mission.
There is no reason that a private foundation can't be formed
for 50 sponsors to spend a million dollars or more to have
their name, their logo just on a plaque on that launch to
support this Nation getting back into space; and as soon as the
legislation is passed that can get the money into NASA, the
money leaves the foundation and goes to NASA. It just hits it
as a holding spot.
Senator Brownback. Well, let me interrupt you on that. If
we just took a little piece out of this legislation right now
and we just said out of the overall reauthorization of NASA or
toward this program and said: ``Let's just take this little
piece out and try to get it through fast so that this money can
go directly to NASA,'' which is a key issue----
Mr. Lorsch. Yes.
Senator Brownback.--you're saying that that needs to take
place. Then we can have access to, you think, a hundred million
dollars on a near term versus?
Mr. Lorsch. I think between the next shuttle mission and
the concept of a screen saver, where photos that are not on the
public NASA website, but for one dollar can be downloaded as a
screen saver----
Senator Brownback. Yes.
Mr. Lorsch.--for people who want to support the space
program will generate a hundred million dollars within the next
6 to 12 months. And I would be amazed if it wasn't
substantially more than that.
I think that even if the legislation can't be fast tracked
because you want to start selling this, in essence, immediately
I think the trust or the holding place for this money could
easily be in one of two places: the Smithsonian Institute in a
special fund Air and Space Museum; or perhaps in a special fund
where that money, which may not go direct to NASA, might go to
subsidize programs that NASA wishes it had money to subsidize,
like some of the programs that Mr. Stadd is talking about.
Senator Brownback. Yes. I want to work with you in getting
that introduced soon. So, we just take that piece of it out and
let's just get it in now and see if we can move that through
fast and get access to those funds for NASA.
Mr. Lorsch. And I think the other piece that's important,
if it can be done, is the comment that Mr. Mitchell made. I
know of carnage and I say this with all due respect of NASA and
government. But there are a lot of people that have been
pioneering the way and working the halls of NASA, Congress and
the Senate to give to the space program, who have come up with
great ideas and great programs. And I think that to the extent
that we have a body of law that covers intellectual properties,
copyrights, registrations, presentations, concepts and ideas,
it should be extended to outer space to protect and motivate
the entrepreneurs that are out there creating the difference
that's going to bring the hundred million dollars I'm talking
about in the next 6 to 12 months--or the billions that I'm
absolutely convinced we can generate prior to heading off to
Mars.
Senator Brownback. Would that have to be involved in this
narrow piece of mechanism to get the money just to NASA, would
this second piece have to be involved in it to truly access
those private sector advertising dollars?
Mr. Lorsch. No, it would not have to be involved; but it
would protect the individuals that were--I mean, I've just come
up with two ideas sitting here at the table today. And I'm good
but I'm not the world's greatest in marketing. And I'm sure
there are a lot of other people that have other ideas that
could make that pot $300 million.
Senator Brownback. Need to protect the intellectual
property. I see what you're saying.
Mr. Lorsch. So, it would be nice to know that those people
knew that if they invested their own hard-earned dollars into
something, it wasn't going to be something that was presented
and then was exploited by some multi-national corporation or
NASA on a direct basis. But the real opportunity right now is
with the excitement and the enthusiasm that's going on with the
Mars landers and the next shuttle mission. If this Committee
does not take advantage of it, it would be just a waste of
another hundred-plus million dollars; and, again, Senator, I
say that with all due respect because I know that government
works in strange ways.
But this is a wonderful opportunity that can make a major
difference toward getting us into space fast.
Senator Brownback. I hope you will give us the benefit of
some of your thinking, too, of what we could get in marketing
resources for NASA regarding the space program, in a tasteful
fashion that involves and works with the private sector.
Mr. Lorsch. I think every component mission that goes up,
if you assume that we're going to assemble and build a
spacecraft to go to Mars from the lunar surface, there's going
to be a tremendous amount of activity between the United
States--between here, Earth, space station, the Moon. Every one
of those missions, whether it's to bring parts, to do work, or
to develop living experiments, has the potential of generating
between 10 and $25 million a mission, easily, just for the
rights of the companies who are sponsoring those missions to be
able to say they're part of taking man into space.
The ultimate mission of going to Mars, there's going to be
a tremendous amount of time, as I understand it, at least 7
months to get there, a year and a half up there, 7 months to
get back. A tremendous amount of television time, tremendous
amount of photos; and every aspect of any piece of intellectual
property or broadcast that's communicated from the lunar
surface, the spacecraft, back to Earth or from Mars back to
Earth or news conferences with astronauts that can be standing
in front of nothing more than a Nextel logo, a Northrop Grumman
logo are worth hundreds of millions of dollars. If the Super
Bowl game, which is one Sunday, can generate a million and a
half to $2 million for 30-second advertisement, a lifetime of
changing the way this world exists and contributing to science,
technology, education and the future of our children has to be
worth billions of dollars and without a lot of work.
The difference between what I'm talking about is these are
programs that if next week the Senate said: ``We'll somehow
create a mechanism by some type of executive order where on the
next shuttle mission 50 corporations can put a sponsorship
plaque, minimum $1 million the 50 highest bidders,'' I would
not be surprised if that mission took off with a hundred to
$250 million of sponsorship money because there's so much
enthusiasm, support and goodwill from corporate America toward
our space program. There's no way for people to demonstrate it.
There's no way for the teacher in a classroom to encourage
their student to design a piece of artwork using a photograph
from Mars and entering a contest that for 25 cents or 50 cents
could generate $10 million.
Look at how much money was raised in quarters for the
children of Afghanistan in one week, in one speech----
Senator Brownback. Yes.
Mr. Lorsch.--by a President.
Senator Brownback. And for me, just looking at it, we've
got to get resources in this program to make it work. It's just
we have to do that, and I think this represents a real way that
we can get resources we need.
Mr. Mitchell, when your comments came forward, I was
thinking that we probably need to do a full hearing on what the
scientific community is saying about the near-term prospects of
asteroids hitting Earth. And we may lean upon you to get us
scientific community names you think will be good and we'll do
our own research as well on that who the best minds are.
Mr. Mitchell. Yes.
Senator Brownback. I'm looking at this, just the timeframes
that they are considering this to be a real prospect for us, as
being another part of the factors that we put forward to the
public and to Congress about, ``Here's the reason why we need
to do these things and do them now.'' So, I'm hoping you can
work with us on that.
Mr. Mitchell. Will be glad to, sir.
In that light, starting Monday, actually Sunday, David
Morrison of NASA and Rusty Schweickart and a whole plethora of
scientists and individuals are holding a Planetary Defense
Conference in Los Angeles on the very subject and the
proceedings of that hearing will be, I think, very interesting
to you and----
Senator Brownback. Good.
Mr. Mitchell.--anyone else in Congress who might be
interested in the subject. And I'll be glad to help you in any
way to put another meeting together.
Senator Brownback. Just on that topic.
Mr. Mitchell. Just on that topic, yes, sir.
Senator Brownback. We've got to build a case for why to
move these on forward and expend the resources from the
government to do this.
Mr. Mitchell. Yes.
Senator Brownback. And this will be another platform issue.
Mr. Stadd, thank you. Thank you for your thoughts from both
inside and outside the organization, and I think those are good
thoughts for us to have.
I hope you put forward even the idea of having the
commercial sector run the space station near term. You think
there are a number of groups that would be competent and
capable of doing that?
Mr. Mitchell. Let me caveat by saying, one, I was thinking
more in the context of working with the government pending an
exclusive license to broker and market the U.S. portion part of
the station, recognizing that there are some safety issues and
so forth that will have to be taken into consideration.
Yes, I do believe that under certain conditions there would
be interest by individuals with substantial resources. I know
that some people I've talked to are, quite frankly, somewhat
concerned that, if you'll forgive the metaphor, but as the
center of gravity, if you will, sort of shifts beyond lower
Earth orbit in terms of focusing beyond the station over the
long term. The American taxpayer has spent billions and
billions of dollars in nonrecurring investment. One investor
said to me, it's like having a house guest in your house and if
you're not using the house, the house guest naturally is
inclined to spread their belongings around a bit and end up
with a defacto ownership.
And I would presume that the taxpayer would prefer that the
United States make full use of that capacity. So, I'm simply
suggesting that under the right conditions I do believe there
would be interest.
Senator Brownback. I had a guy tell me previously that with
all that private sector, you're going to be able to get that
same work done for, he was suggesting, a fourth of the cost and
a third of the time frames to get it done. Which the
governments do great work, but we are inherently a bureaucratic
big monolith to move.
Mr. Mitchell. We are. And I've had the honor of working on
both sides as you indicated, Mr. Chairman. I certainly would
not want to, at least on my part, the record to reflect that
this is tough stuff when you're leaving the gravity well and
going up to what is a pretty hostile environment. It's pretty
complicated, pretty risky stuff, particularly when you involve
people.
So, I don't think any one of us certainly at the table
would underestimate the challenge; and some of the costs
associated with, particularly with human systems, has to do
with protecting those lives; but having said that, you're
absolutely correct. As Mr. Chafer said, the genius of the
American entrepreneur is if you give us a challenge within a
certain set of parameters, I think we have a pretty good track
record of stepping up and meeting that challenge.
And I do want to emphasize his point, particularly if we
can do so as co-partners with the agency. I think that we could
be having you, sir, holding this hearing 10 years from now and
I think we could see much of that initial part of the vision
being executed with benefits to everybody in the American
society and, quite frankly, on a global basis.
Senator Brownback. Well, as we celebrate 200 years of Lewis
and Clark, it was a government operation, Lewis and Clark was;
but they didn't settle it.
Mr. Mitchell. No, sir.
Senator Brownback. They opened it up, set a pathway, proof
of concept; but then it was the millions of people on foot that
followed, settled and opened it up. Many of them settled in my
state of Kansas. Off of a really well-designed government
program, the Homestead Act. I'm critical of a lot of
governmental programs; I don't think they work very well, but
this one worked great. Five years you stay on it, you get 160
acres; and the number of people that tried and failed at that
were enormous. The number of people who tried and succeeded
were significant, but it was just: ``OK. Here's the field. You
guys go at it. God bless you.''
And I hope we can take some modeling, you know, from prior
activities of when we've opened up other frontiers and do it
right, do it thoughtfully and we don't want people to risk
lives in fashions that they clearly shouldn't. But at the same
time we want to engage that spirit, entrepreneurship, energy,
and capital to move us on forward.
Mr. Stadd. Absolutely. If I may, sir, sometimes it's been
my observation that there's a bit of a disconnect sometimes
between the Nation's political system and, ironically, the very
people the system is representing.
Often I think the system underestimates the resiliency and
the capacity of the American public for risk. I had the honor
of being the chief of staff in the midst of the Columbia
tragedy and it was awesome the bow wave of cards and letters,
e-mails, the faxes that we received from people of all ages in
America. And the common theme was: ``Go forward. Please find
the problem, fix it, but move forward.'' And, in fact, we had
an exhibit in the lobby that I was very proud of that
juxtaposed CEOs of large corporations with 6-year-olds and
Crayon-written cards with the common theme that it is important
for this country to proceed forward.
Senator Brownback. It is.
With that note, Gentlemen, thank you very much. It has been
quite a stimulating discussion. It has been an excellent
hearing and input. We are working with the Chairman and the
Ranking Member's on authorizing legislation. We'll be working
on this budgetarily as well certain of the Appropriation's
Committee. So, we'll be working on that issue, too; and it's a
good moment. The thing I'm really interested in right now is
that we get the design as close to right legislatively as we
can, because there's a legislative architecture that is being
chewed and stewed on right now and we want to get that as right
as we can.
We don't ever get them a hundred percent right, as is
obvious by a number of some missed steps; but, hopefully, we
can get those close to right to be really able to stimulate
this and move it on forward.
Thank you very much for appearing. The record will stay
open for the requisite number of days. Thank you all for
attending. We appreciate your being here. The hearing's
adjourned.
[all]