[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 45 (Wednesday, April 22, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E613-E614]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              SPACE POLICY

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. LEE H. HAMILTON

                               of indiana

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, April 22, 1998

  Mr. HAMILTON. Mr. Speaker, I would like to insert my Washington 
Report for Wednesday, April 15, 1998 into the Congressional Record.

                      Exploring the Final Frontier

       The American public has had an abiding fascination with 
     space exploration. When I first came to Congress in 1965, the 
     public's attention was focused on the National Aeronautics 
     and Space Administration's (NASA) efforts to put a man on the 
     moon. Hoosiers had a special interest in the Apollo program 
     because many of the astronauts, including Gus Grissom, had 
     ties to Indiana.
       While humans haven't set foot on the moon in over a 
     generation, space-related stories continue to hold our 
     attention, whether those stories involve photographs from the 
     surface of Mars, or the recent detection of ice on the moon, 
     or the images from deep space produced by the Hubble 
     Telescope, or the announcement that Senator John Glenn will 
     return to space this fall. The recent prediction, which has 
     now been discredited, that an asteroid might collide with the 
     Earth early next century dominated the news for several days.
       Space exploration continues to enjoy widespread public 
     support. The challenge for NASA will be to achieve its 
     objectives over the next 20 years, including the building of 
     a Space Station and possibly a human mission to Mars, in an 
     era of constrained federal budgets. NASA budgets, for 
     example, have been relatively flat in recent years.
       NASA has worked to streamline its operations by cutting 
     costs, shifting more responsibilities to the private sector, 
     and partnering with other countries. It remains to be seen, 
     however, whether those efforts will succeed in bringing 
     NASA's ambitious program in line with budget realities.


                          Major NASA programs

       The current NASA budget, $13.6 billion, represents less 
     than one percent of total federal spending. NASA's proposals 
     for the next few years include three major components:
       Space Station: The International Space Station is to be a 
     configuration of laboratories placed in orbit by the U.S., 
     Russia and other international partners that will allow 
     astronauts to live and work in space for months at a time. 
     Originally planned to be operational by 1994, the Space 
     Station has undergone a number of redesigns, delays and cost 
     overruns. The current plan calls for assembly of the station 
     to begin later this year and be completed by 2003. Total cost 
     estimates for the project, including previous work, design, 
     assembly and operation, range from $30 billion (a NASA 
     estimate) to $94 billion (a General Accounting Office 
     estimate).
       The Space Station has been mired in controversy for the 
     last several years. Supporters say that the station is 
     critical to future exploration of space, particularly human 
     exploration, and to scientific advances in materials, 
     biomedicine and agriculture. Critics, including me, respond 
     that the program is too costly and poorly managed, that it 
     diverts limited federal resources from other NASA programs as 
     well as other domestic programs, and that the amount of 
     research that can be conducted on the redesigned station is 
     not worth the investment.
       Earth observation: Another major NASA program, called 
     Mission to Planet Earth, involves a series of satellites to 
     be launched over the next several years to collect 
     environmental data on the Earth. The goal of the program is 
     to increase our understanding of the Earth's natural 
     processes and how humans might be affecting them. The program 
     will study such problems as ozone depletion, deforestation, 
     and global warming. The satellites, the first of which will 
     be launched in June, will collect data ranging from surface 
     temperatures and cloud structure to solar radiation and 
     carbon monoxide.
       Study of the planets: NASA has launched many spacecraft 
     over the years to study other planets in our solar system. 
     Robotic probes have visited all the planets in the solar 
     system, except Pluto. Galileo, launched in 1989, reached 
     Jupiter in 1995 and is successfully sending back data about 
     the planet and its moons. A similar space probe called 
     Cassini was launched in 1997 to explore Saturn and is 
     scheduled to arrive at the planet in 2004.
       Current attention, however, has focused on NASA's study of 
     Mars. Last July the Mars Pathfinder space probe landed on the 
     surface of the ``Red Planet'', capturing video footage of the 
     planet. A second spacecraft, the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS), 
     arrived at Mars last September and will gather data on the 
     planet from orbit. MGS is the first in a series of ``Mars 
     Surveyor'' spacecraft which are scheduled to be launched at 
     26-month intervals through the year 2005. The intensive 
     analysis of Mars may set the stage for future human 
     exploration in the next century, although the cost of such an 
     effort would likely run into the hundreds of billions of 
     dollars.


                                Outlook

       Pressures to keep down overall spending on space have had 
     important consequences for how NASA manages its programs. 
     First, NASA is placing increased emphasis on international 
     cooperation in space. Constrained budgets in the U.S. and 
     elsewhere will continue to bring countries together in the 
     name of space exploration and research. My sense is that the 
     U.S. will continue to lead space-related efforts, but the end 
     of the Cold War has certainly created new opportunities for 
     international partnerships.
       Second, NASA is looking increasingly to private sector 
     involvement in space programs to help lower costs and spur 
     innovation. The private sector is already heavily involved in 
     satellite launching and operations for communications and 
     imaging. Other potential commercial space activities are 
     microgravity materials processing and space tourism.


                               Conclusion

       I believe that we have a basic need to explore the final 
     frontier. The American people have a great romance with 
     space. They watch the astronauts dance through the

[[Page E614]]

     vastness of space and do a job that no one could be sure was 
     even possible. We need to be bold and innovative, and I 
     understand that we cannot make progress unless we take risks.
       Nonetheless, I have serious reservations about NASA's 
     emphasis on human space spectaculars. If our goal is really 
     to explore space and advance our knowledge of its mysteries, 
     robotic rather than human exploration can penetrate longer, 
     farther and deeper into space for a fraction of the cost.
       I do not reject the long-term goal of human space 
     exploration, but believe that NASA's focus should be on 
     scientific research projects like Mission to Planet Earth, 
     which will improve the quality of life for people on this 
     planet. Among other things, this approach would mean scaling 
     back if not eliminating the Space Station, the purpose of 
     which has never been as clear as its huge costs.

     

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