[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 110 (Monday, July 10, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H6727-H6728]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                SALUTING NASA ON RECENT SHUTTLE MISSION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Florida [Mr. Weldon] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. WELDON of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise tonight to speak out and 
to salute the people at Kennedy Space Center as well as the officials 
in NASA and those at the other centers as well as our astronauts in 
particular and additionally our cosmonauts on the tremendously 
successful recent Mir rendezvous mission.
  I went down, Mr. Speaker, to see the shuttle take off for that 
particular flight. Unfortunately we got canceled because of rain the 
few days I was down there and I had to return back here because the 
House went back in session.
  But then we had a flawless liftoff and the mission, I can only say, 
was a tremendous success. Not only did the commander of the mission, 
Hoot Gibson, do a fabulous job, but so did the entire crew. It was a 
historic mission. It was the 100th space flight for the United States, 
and it was the first rendezvous mission involving our space shuttle, 
clearly demonstrating the technology that is needed for our space 
shuttle not only to continue to go up and link up with the Mir space 
station but in a few years to be able to go up and link up with our 
future space station.
  I think it is a tremendous testimonial to the efforts of all the 
workers there at Kennedy Space Center as well as at Johnson Space 
Center and the other NASA centers that this mission went off 
flawlessly.
  I was delighted to be able to be there to see the shuttle land and to 
meet with some of the Russian officials. I could not help but think how 
our nations, the United States and the former Soviet Union, what is now 
Russia, enemies for so many years, for so many years engaged in an 
escalation of hostilities, how we can now in this arena join together 
and to show that through cooperation and trust that we can achieve 
great things.
  I, by no means, Mr. Speaker, mean to imply that I feel that we should 
let down our defenses. I am personally an advocate for a very strong 
national defense. I think what is going on now with the Soviet Union 
today, or the Russian people today, is something new, we need to take 1 
year at a time and see how it goes. But I think this was a tremendous 
testimonial to the success of a cooperative effort.
  I also think it was inspiring to all our young people. Today our 
young people are looking for role models. So many of their role models 
in society let them down. When they look at the success of this mission 
and the astronauts in this mission, it is something they can look up 
to.
  As the Speaker knows, we have to compete in the international 
marketplace and we need to have the best in science and technology if 
we are going to be able to be competitive. I think through our space 
program, that is a key way in which we can continue to maintain our 
strong posture, leading the world in research and in science.
  This space station holds out the prospect for some tremendous 
breakthroughs in areas of medicine that I happen to be very familiar 
with as a former physician. I spent many years treating many women with 
osteoporosis and additionally treating many senior citizens who had 
problems with fainting or syncopal episodes.
  With the medical research that we are going to be doing on the space 
station made possible with our shuttle, we should be able to unlock 
some of the secrets that led to this disease and how to achieve some 
meaningful cures to some of these problems.
  To be there at the landing of this shuttle was just very inspiring. I 
had seen many shuttles take off before from my parking lot at work in 
Melbourne, FL, but I had never actually been there at Kennedy Space 
Center to see one of them land.
  It comes in over the coast of Tampa at about 200,000 feet. By the 
time it arrives over at the east coast at Kennedy Space Center, it is 
at 50,000 feet. Within 4 minutes, it is landing on the ground. It drops 
and drops and drops and drops, and then when it is just a few hundred 
feet off the ground, the pilot noses the shuttle up, the landing gear 
comes down, and it comes in for a landing just like an airliner.
  As it landed, Mr. Golden was there, the administrator of NASA, turned 
to me and he said, ``No other country in the world can do that.''
  He was right. No other country in the world can send a spacecraft up 
with a crew and bring that spacecraft back and have it land on an 
airstrip safely.
  Mr. Speaker, I salute the astronauts and cosmonauts on this mission, 
and I 

[[Page H 6728]]
salute all the workers at the space centers that were involved in this 
project.


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