[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 102 (Monday, July 19, 1999)]
[House]
[Pages H5820-H5822]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     HONORING ASTRONAUT PETE CONRAD

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Calvert) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. CALVERT. Mr. Speaker, I rise today on the sad occasion of the 
recent loss of a great American hero. Pete Conrad truly embodied our 
Nation's preeminence in space exploration and the progress of our 
Nation's space program.
  As a lifetime fan of space exploration, I have been inspired by 
Captain Conrad's achievements in space and devotion to building 
America's space program.
  I recently had the honor of meeting this great man, a brief meeting 
that I will never forget. In the short amount of time we spent 
together, I sensed the passion and dedication he held for our Nation's 
space program. As I shook his hand to say goodbye, I knew that I had 
just met a true American hero.

[[Page H5821]]

  Captain Conrad's memorable career as an astronaut is very well 
documented. He was the third man to walk on the Moon. He was aboard 
four missions to space. He set numerous records for space travel, 
including the endurance record for an individual in space and the world 
space altitude record. His achievements helped pave the way for our 
Nation's success in space exploration, which have recently included the 
early stages of the International Space Station and the successful 
mission to Mars.
  For these heroic efforts, he received the Congressional Space Medal 
of Honor among his other distinguished career awards and medals.
  Not so well known, however, were his activities following his 
retirement from NASA and the Navy. Pete Conrad continued his dedication 
to our Nation's space program by promoting America's commercial 
activities in space.
  Throughout his 20-year career at McDonnell Douglas, Captain Conrad 
led many efforts to advance our Nation's emergence in space 
exploration. During this time, he earned the reputation as a leader in 
private space industry. More recently, through his establishment of a 
group of companies called the Universal Space Lines, Captain Conrad 
continued his activities to ensure that America would remain the 
preeminent Nation in space.
  The continued development of commercial activities in space will be 
the lasting memory of Captain Conrad.
  I believe Pete Conrad was intricately responsible for our Nation's 
long-standing posture as a leader in space. As we develop commercial 
space activities and benefit from them, we should remember that without 
the leadership, dedication, bravery, and ingenuity of Captain Pete 
Conrad, these would not have been possible.
  I send my condolences to Pete's family, friends, associates.
  Pete, thank you for inspiring me and our entire Nation.
  When I think of Pete's lifetime achievements, I get inspired to 
gleefully exclaim the first word he spoke as he took his first step on 
the Moon: ``Whoopee'' .
  Godspeed, Pete. I will remember you always.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to my friend, the gentleman from California (Mr. 
Rohrabacher).
  Mr. ROHRABACHER. Mr. Speaker, I would like to at this moment to 
submit for the Record a testimony that Pete Conrad gave before my 
subcommittee, and I chair the Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics in 
this House Committee on Science, on October 1, 1998, which was his 
testimony at the 40th anniversary of NASA. The title of his testimony 
was ``Life Begins at Forty.''
  It is a terrific, terrific vision for the future that Pete outlined 
his goals for America's space program in the next millennium.
  Mr. Speaker, I commend my friend, the gentleman from California (Mr. 
Calvert), for being here tonight. I will have 5 minutes a little bit 
later on to say my piece, as well.
  The gentleman from California (Mr. Calvert) is just one of many 
people like myself who have been inspired by Pete Conrad, a man who is 
not just a great pilot and a great technician but a beautiful human 
being, a person with an incredible sense of humor.
  And of course, let me just say to the gentleman from California (Mr. 
Calvert) that when he quoted Pete and his first word when he stepped 
onto the Moon, I think he had to give a little bit more umph to it. It 
was ``whoopee!'' And not just ``whoopee,'' because Pete Conrad had a 
zest for life and was just a fantastic human being. He was a naval 
pilot who was a very successful naval pilot.
  Today we buried Pete Conrad in Arlington Cemetery. And as we stood 
there and as his body was about to be lowered down, a team of naval 
pilots flew over that site and one pilot peeled off and headed straight 
for the heavens. And that is Pete heading straight for the heavens. It 
was a glorious sight.
  We just thank God for men and women in our military and in the 
service of our country as astronauts and the rest like Pete Conrad, 
leading the way for America.

                    NASA 1998: Life Begins at Forty


 Testimony Before the Subcommittee on Space and Aviation of the House 
      Committee on Science, Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, Chairman

  Charles ``Pete'' Conrad, Jr., Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, 
     Universal Space Line, Inc., Newport Beach, CA, October 1, 1998

       Good afternoon Chairman Rohrabacher, Congressman Gordon, 
     and other honored members of the Space and Aeronautics 
     Subcommittee. I'd like to thank you for inviting me to speak 
     to the Subcommittee about the future, and the role NASA can 
     play to develop that future. Having been a long time NASA 
     team member on Gemini, Apollo and Skylab, I rode the wave of 
     public support and popularity the U.S. space program 
     engendered through the 1960s and early 1970s.
       I enjoyed the rare opportunity of being an astronaut for 
     this great country, but the bigger legacy I hope to leave 
     behind is a robust commercial space industry making money for 
     America in the 21st Century. I can't speak for the entire 
     industry, but I would like to speak for my part of it, 
     Universal Space Lines (USL). USL is a small business just 
     over two years old, but already with over fifty employees. 
     Our long-term company goal is to position ourselves as the 
     world's premier provider of affordable commercial space 
     transportation services, including purchase and operation of 
     both expendable and reusable launch vehicles. Our current 
     products range from the commercial tracking and commanding of 
     satellites, to a near term, low cost expendable launch 
     vehicle for small to medium payloads. And Mr. Goldin will be 
     interested to hear we've begun planning for the eventual 
     transition to reusable launch vehicles as their technology 
     matures.
       Our success will primarily be driven by the growing 
     commercial space sector. Commercial space revenues will 
     exceed $100 billion annually at the turn of this Century, a 
     figure far greater than today's combined NASA and Air Force 
     space budgets. And remember: this new millennium is only 15 
     months away!
       As many as a thousand or more new commercial communications 
     satellites will be placed in orbit during the next decade, 
     extending the World Wide Web into the sky. Iridium, 
     Globalstar, Teledesic and others are literally betting tens 
     of billion dollars on the opportunity to cash in on an annual 
     trillion-dollar global communications market.
       My company and others are gambling we will be a part of the 
     emerging commercial space industry. However, we should not 
     become too sanguine about the power of the word 
     ``commercial.'' Both NASA and the Defense Department will 
     also play a major role, for good or for bad, in the ultimate 
     environment that emerges. In the years ahead my hope is that 
     this Congress will help guide our nation to establish a free 
     and competitive market in which all companies can participate 
     fairly. NASA, if it so chooses, can be a major player helping 
     the transition to a commercially focused profitable space 
     industry.
       As an example of how our country dealt with a similar issue 
     from our past, I'd like to draw your attention to the early 
     history of commercial aviation. Between the late 1940s and 
     early 1960s, during a post war era of declining budgets, NASA 
     (and its predecessor agency, the NACA) and the Air Force 
     invested in a host of experimental aircraft that opened 
     America's skies to military and commercial aviation. In 
     particular, experimental and military jet aircraft spawned 
     the thriving commercial aviation industry we have inherited 
     today.
       During those early pivotal years after World War II, 
     visionary leaders in the Air Force and NACA pursued a 
     technology policy of building and flying demonstration 
     hardware; hardware that was build quickly and flown often. 
     These early investments pushed aviation into a thriving, 
     commercially focused and profitable industry. Our challenge 
     today is to ensure the same opportunity is afforded our 
     budding commercial space industry. Just as the success of our 
     aviation industry hinged on the introduction of affordable 
     and reliable aircraft, the commercial space industry can't 
     truly take off without affordable and reliable launch 
     vehicles.


               Forty Years Hence: Through A Glass Darkly

       Mr. Chairman, history is a funny thing, full of unexpected 
     discontinuities. So before I try to look forward into the 
     middle of the next Century, I'd like to briefly look back to 
     the middle of this Century.
       Forty years after the Wright Brothers first flew at Kill 
     Devil Hills, B-17s and B-24s were bombing Germany, and the B-
     29 was in initial full scale production. In Germany, the Me-
     262, a jet fighter (and probably the finest airplane in the 
     war) was also just entering initial full scale production. 
     So, too, was the A.4 (the V-2)--an honest-to-God war rocket.
       But we haven't seen the same sort of progress in the forty 
     years since the founding of NASA in 1958. Why? In 1903, 
     people aboard an airplane were called ``aeronauts.'' Forty 
     years later, they were called ``passengers.'' Where are the 
     passenger tickets to space available for purchase today?
       A second cautionary analogy. USL is a business being run 
     virtually. We depend upon the interconnectivity of the 
     Internet. I have no idea how I would do my job without access 
     to the information resources of the World Wide Web.
       But the Web only came into existence around 1992--just six 
     years ago!
       And we're not at all unique--scores of other businesses are 
     also now totally dependent upon the Web's existence.
       How do you predict the coming of something like the Web? 
     It's roughly equivalent

[[Page H5822]]

     to being able to predict, in 1900, that the coming of the 
     automobile is going to lead to the suburb, or to drive-
     through fast food stands. . . .
       I'm a bit reluctant, then, about trying to predict or 
     describe what 2038 might look like. But I can describe what 
     I'd like it to look like.


          Strategic U.S. Goals In Space For the Next 40 Years

       The committee has asked, ``What should be the strategic 
     goals of the U.S. in space for the next forty years?'' I 
     think that there are four overarching goals. (1) Foster a 
     commercial space industry. (2) Explore the Solar System. (3) 
     Settle the Solar System. (4) Explore the Universe.
       For the first time, there now exists a nascent commercial 
     launch services industry. It came slowly into existence 
     during the last part of the 1990s, and it came into existence 
     primarily because, for the first time, NASA didn't try to 
     strangle this new industry in its cradle. The foremost thing 
     a medical doctor learns is ``First, do no harm.'' This prime 
     principle of medicine should also become the foremost policy 
     of the Federal Government with respect to the newborn 
     commercial launch industry.
       Exploration of the Solar System will be done by robots and 
     by humans. In the case of robots, these missions will be 
     primarily scientific, and could be pursued by the Government, 
     or by academia, or both. Commercial data purchase is one 
     method that either or both could pursue as a means to achieve 
     their exploration goals, and at the same time save money, and 
     again at the same time help to foster a commercial space 
     sector.
       Exploration by humans will probably be confined to the 
     inner Solar System over the next forty years--i.e., Luna, 
     Mars, and the small bodies (asteroids). These explorations 
     will also be primarily scientific, certainly so in the case 
     of Mars, but in the case of Luna and the asteroids, one can 
     easily see economic rationales. There are thus business cases 
     that can be made and that will be pursued.
       Settlement of the Solar System may begin with Luna. There's 
     lunar water ice at both poles, making settlements and 
     outposts on Luna tremendously easier to accomplish than might 
     have been otherwise. Lunar water ice, in a phrase, changes 
     everything. One might even speak of a lunar ``Cold Rush. . . 
     .''
       The exploration of the Universe is primarily a scientific 
     one, using space-based astronomy facilities. Such work, of 
     course, is done to ``do'' science, but a lot of this science 
     will begin to lay the ground work for the first robotic 
     missions to the near stars, possibly in the 22nd Century.


                the Single Issue That Must Be addressed

       But before any of the above can be attempted, much less 
     accomplished, there must be Cheap Access to Space. You need 
     to be able to get to low Earth orbit (``LEO'') easily, 
     frequently, reliably, and cheaply. There is no inherent 
     technical barrier to the creation of such a capability--
     ``only'' engineering development need occur for cheap, easy 
     to operate, robust access to low Earth orbit to become 
     available.
       And as has been pointed out, once you're in LEO, in terms 
     of energy, you're halfway to anywhere else in the Solar 
     System.


                    roles of the federal government

       The second issue the Subcommittee wished addressed is 
     ``What are the appropriate roles of the federal government in 
     pursuing those goals?'' I would argue that there are four 
     roles for the Federal Government. The first appropriate role 
     is to support and encourage science, both directly funding it 
     as well as helping to encourage and underwrite its 
     accomplishment by the private sector and academia. This also 
     applies to exploration activity, both human and robot. The 
     Government ought to help academia and the private sector 
     explore, through underwriting, partnerships, tax credits, and 
     other such mechanisms. In some rare cases, the Government 
     itself might also mount its own explorations. These were the 
     patterns and methods of exploration employed by Spain and 
     England in the 1500s and 1600s, as well as by the United 
     States in the 1800s.
       The second appropriate role of the Federal Government in my 
     opinion is to foster long-term, high-risk technology 
     development. The Federal Government should strongly invest in 
     next generation technology, including experimental reusable 
     launch vehicles and military demonstration hardware.
       The third activity that I feel is appropriate for the 
     Federal Government to pursue is that of the use of space for 
     the defense of the United States.
       Finally, the Federal Government has, I believe, an 
     important, if not critical, role in the encouragement and 
     incentivization of the growth of the nascent entrepreneurial 
     commercial launch industry.


             short term policies to accomplish these goals

       ``What policies and priorities should Congress and the 
     Administration be putting in place in the near term to begin 
     the transition to the future?''
       Here are a few of the possible options I think would go a 
     long way in the short term for encouraging and incentivizing 
     the growth of our emerging commercial launch industry.
       NASA and the Air Force should procure all launch services 
     via competitive bids that are truly open to all companies, 
     not just the largest defense contractors. These ``fly before 
     buy'' launch service contracts must not develop new launch 
     vehicles; instead, they should be structured like the Air 
     Mail ``service'' contracts of the 1930s to encourage private 
     investment. During the next forty years NASA should 
     transition totally out of operating space launch vehicles, or 
     of on-orbit support infrastructure.
       Space science data should be purchased by NASA in order to 
     help to support science and the development of a commercial 
     space sector. Resupply and support of the International Space 
     Station should be provided commercially by the private 
     sector, so as to also help support the development of a 
     commercial space sector. The International Space Station 
     should also be commercially operated.
       In parallel, Congress can also pass legislation providing 
     incentives to the commercial space transportation sector. One 
     possibility is investment tax credits to incentivize the 
     creation of launch service providers. Such credits ought to 
     be able to be traded. Other possibilities include interest 
     write-offs, legislated market incentives like ``air-mail,'' 
     and regulatory improvements. All of these incentives can help 
     give birth to a thriving commercial launch industry modeled 
     after today's aviation industry. The one thing we must not do 
     is create a monopoly where a single company controls the 
     ability to launch critical commercial and military assets 
     into space. Guaranteeing government loans or market share for 
     a single company would be catastrophic to the emerging 
     commercial industry.
       In the future tax credits may also be an appropriate 
     mechanism for helping to encourage long term goals, such as 
     Lunar missions and settlement.
       A third policy thrust should be to robustly invest in the 
     experimental technology and military demonstration hardware 
     that supports truly low cost space launch vehicles. No 
     technology investment is required for expendable launch 
     vehicles, as the commercial sector is well positioned to 
     develop such vehicles today. Instead, the government should 
     be investing in the longer term, higher risk reusable launch 
     vehicle technologies that promise to reduce launch costs by 
     two orders of magnitude.
       Mr. Goldin at NASA has already done a good job with his 
     early investments in experimental vehicles, but it's just the 
     first step. NASA's early, but underfunded plan to fly many 
     ``Future-X'' experimental vehicles is an excellent blueprint 
     for the future. In the past, Mr. Goldin has shared his vision 
     of ``blackening the sky with X-vehicles''--not prototypes or 
     commercial vehicles, but pure experimental demonstrators. If 
     we truly want low cost launch vehicles, it will require the 
     flight of many experimental vehicles built by many different 
     companies.
       The policy goal of flying X-vehicles for technology 
     demonstrations should become the basic way that the 
     government (and NASA) should approach technology development. 
     Build 'em, fly 'em, and break 'em--both by intent and 
     accident, this approach has led to today's thriving 
     commercial aviation industry.
       In coordination with NASA, DoD should also be investing in 
     their own experimental vehicles and early military 
     demonstration hardware. Either the Air Force or the Navy 
     should develop a Military Spaceplane capability that supports 
     global reach and the ability to defend U.S. interests 
     ``anywhere, anytime,'' with dramatically smaller force 
     structures than exist today. Blue ribbon panel after blue 
     ribbon panel has advocated the need for such technology 
     investments starting with General Moorman's Space Launch 
     Modernization Panel in 1994. Most recently, the Defense 
     Science Board is recommending an ongoing investment in the 
     Space Maneuver Vehicle flight tested at Holloman AFB just 
     last month.
       Finally, while institutional changes are not necessarily 
     required at NASA, the mindset must change. NASA should be the 
     leading advocate of change and the transition to a primarily 
     commercial space industry. Nonetheless, the real change is up 
     to Congress. NASA, the Administration, and Congress must 
     decide to place funding and budget priorities on the side of 
     change. The Government should be investing in technology, 
     experimental vehicles, and military hardware for the defense 
     of the country.


                    2038: free people in free space

       The United States is at a seminal point in our transition 
     to a commercial space industry. If we choose to encourage and 
     incentivize the move towards a commercially based space 
     industry we can accelerate and fundamentally enable America's 
     move into space. We did this once before when America 
     invested in the technology of commercial aviation, and it 
     paid handsome dividends. Now it's time to build the same 
     bridge to the future of commercial space.
       Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for this opportunity to present 
     USL's views. I would be pleased to answer any questions you 
     or any other Members might have.

                          ____________________