[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 95 (Wednesday, July 20, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: July 20, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                 THE 25TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ``APOLLO''

  Ms. MIKULSKI. Madam President, 25 years ago our Nation launched a 
space program that is one of the greatest accomplishments in this 
century. On July 20, 1969, astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong 
became the first humans to walk on the Moon--the crowning moment of the 
Apollo Space Program.
  Like all of America, I lived through the drama of the cold war's 
space race. I was a young woman in college in the 1950's when Sputnik 
shattered America's complacency about its technological superiority. In 
1969, I was fighting the war on poverty in the streets of Baltimore, 
when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin planted a flag on the Moon and made 
America proud again. They landed, they walked, and they broadcast this 
astronomical feat to the world. I was mesmerized by the moment.
  President Kennedy gave the United States a national goal for a new 
frontier, new resources, and new technology. America showed the world 
we had the right stuff.
  Now, a quarter of a century later, the space program is not just a 
faded American flag on the Moon or jars of Tang on the supermarket 
shelves. It is an extraordinary revolution that has benefited our 
Nation in all the ways imagined, and ways never foreseen. The space 
program explores the stars and explores new markets. It generates jobs 
today and jobs tomorrow.
  As we celebrate the glory of the space program, we must also 
acknowledge that its future is unknown. In Congress, budget hawks are 
guided by a single-minded obsession with deficit reduction. The budget 
doves are motivated by a desire to shield social programs from cuts due 
to stricter limits on discretionary spending. Caught in the middle is 
the space program. In this debate, we must remember President Kennedy's 
words: ``There need not be competition nor conflict between meeting our 
social responsibilities and our need for scientific exploration.''
  As a student of the history of science and technology, I have learned 
that great thinkers have always run up against the obstacle of stagnant 
thinking. Their ideas were ridiculed not only by the general public but 
by the other scientists.
  One only has to look at Louis Pasteur who revolutionized the thinking 
on bacteria; or the Wright brothers who wanted to fly and planted the 
seed for the aerospace industry; or our astronauts who are America's 
space pioneers.
  Unfortunately, most Americans do not link the many benefits in their 
daily lives to the space program. They are not aware of the spinoffs 
from the past three decades. They ignore the technological 
breakthroughs that were never anticipated, but materialized. Unless 
their constituents are space workers, Members of Congress are inclined 
to see space spending as just more Federal spending rather than an 
investment in the future.
  The space program helps keep the United States a superpower in 
science and technology. NASA invented insulation techniques that are 
used by Meals on Wheels to deliver food to senior citizens, it paved 
the way for miniaturization and computers, and it developed laser 
technology to move us along the information superhighway.
  NASA's Mission to Planet Earth gives us critical information from 
satellite observations of the entire Earth on global climate change. 
This will help us to save our own planet.
  Space-based research has made enormous strides in making the kind of 
biomedical discoveries that will save lives right here on Earth. Space 
technology has helped us wage the war on heart disease by developing 
laser systems used to treat arteriosclerosis. It helped create advanced 
and pediatric pacemakers, enabling us to live longer. It created the 
implantable heart aid, reducing cardiac death. It created body imaging 
techniques for early detection used in breast cancer research.
  Space-based research may be able to generate the kind of knowledge 
that will create the products we cannot now even imagine, and 
treatments once confined to our dreams. This is a wise investment even 
in lean times, because we must invest today to be ready for the world 
tomorrow.
  The space program creates the jobs of the next millennium. Jobs from 
a new economy based, not only on traditional industries and services, 
but also on new technologies and new products. Targets of opportunity 
are in biotechnology and microgravity science. Those are the kinds of 
investments that will ensure that this Nation is not left out or left 
behind.
  The space program's jobs are not just for dashing astronauts in Star 
Trek costumes. They're for men and women, blue and white collar, 
manufacture workers, scientists, technicians, and clerks.
  NASA has created thousands of jobs for the Washington metropolitan 
region, through its contractors, civil servants, and space related 
work.
  Despite the success of the past 25 years, the space program of the 
future will need to reflect the 21st century. All would agree, that 
NASA has over-promised technology, and underestimated cost. In the 
past, ``just doing it'' was the goal, now we need to link it to 
national goals. NASA needs to have a clear set of priorities. The new 
space program must be balanced. Space policy should not be driven by 
the space station. We need a space program which explores new 
frontiers, advances science, develops new smart technologies, and 
invests in aeronautics to enhance our capacity to compete in a global 
marketplace.
  Tomorrow's space program must be multinational. We can no longer 
afford to do it alone, nor should we want to. Today's space missions 
are collaborations among the United States, Europe, Japan, Canada, and 
the New Independent States of the former Soviet Union.
  It has been 25 years since America walked the Moon. For the next 
century we must decide whether the space program will continue to 
embrace change and look for new opportunities. Or whether we will 
confine it to the Smithsonian--with no future, only a glorious past.
  A new century is coming. A new millennium is about to be born. I want 
America to continue to lead the way and fly the new frontiers of the 
universe.

                          ____________________