[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 68 (Thursday, May 17, 2001)]
[House]
[Pages H2314-H2315]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                SUPPORT THE MANNED SPACE FLIGHT PROGRAM

  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, it is a pleasure for me to be 
able to rise today and speak in support of our Nation's manned space 
flight program.
  Most Americans are aware of the tremendous work that is done on a 
daily basis by the men and women who work for the National Aeronautics 
and Space Administration. Many of the contractors and educators that 
are involved, and the people who are working in the program today, are 
some of the same people who have been involved with it for many years 
or they stand on the shoulders of those who began in the early days of 
the program, from Mercury to Gemini, Apollo to Sky Lab, the Shuttle 
program, and now the new International Space Station currently orbiting 
the Earth today with a crew of three, hopefully someday soon to be able 
to grow to a crew of six.
  The space program, in many ways, has been emblematic in the United 
States of the technological prowess and our expertise in science; but 
it is more than that I think for America's culture. I think burning in 
the heart of every American is the pioneer spirit, the pioneer spirit 
that settled this Nation, the pioneer spirit that caused many of our 
ancestors to come to the United States to try to carve out a better way 
of life. But I really think it is something that burns in the hearts 
and minds of all human beings everywhere; to explore the unknown or to 
go to a new place. And while there are many places on this planet we 
call our home, planet Earth, that remain to be explored, areas like 
Antarctica and the bottoms of our oceans, truly the realm of outerspace 
is the limitless area of exploration.
  In many ways today we are in our first baby steps in these programs, 
like the space station program, where we are just learning the basics 
of how to live and do business and to operate in the environment of 
space. I think it is something that we must do and we must continue to 
do. I believe that were we, as Americans, to abandon our space program, 
to abandon manned space flight would be to turn our back on the very 
essence of what makes us Americans and our desire to research the 
unknown and discover new places.
  I talk to teachers all over this country; and they tell me over and 
over again, when they are dealing with their students and they are 
trying to motivate them and encourage them to study areas of math and 
science, and I think my colleague from Texas, who was a teacher, will 
speak later and verify this from his own experience as a teacher, there 
is nothing that excites our kids more to study in these critical areas 
of math and science than our space program. This is an area where the 
United States needs to be doing more.
  When I travel around my congressional district, the Space Coast of 
Florida, the Treasure Coast, I hear over and over again from 
businessmen, people who are trying to start new companies, that one of 
the most difficult things they face is to find people who are properly 
trained in engineering or sciences; that we are just not turning out 
enough of them. So it is critical that we keep our young people 
motivated. And the teachers all over America tell us that one of the 
things that motivates them the most to studying in the realm of the 
math and science fields is the space program.
  They tell me that they can actually take the material that they are 
being taught in the classroom and apply that to how we go about the 
process of exploring space and living in space; and, furthermore, that 
that in turn can help us raise up a new generation of scientists and 
engineers that will help us to explore the unknown.
  Finally, let me additionally say another good reason we need to be in 
space is just the whole realm of spinoffs. Most Americans are not 
familiar with the fact that much of the technology involving pacemakers 
and prosthetic devices, like prosthetic hips, the material science 
involved in that are direct spinoffs from our space program. Indeed, 
there is a company in my congressional district that is developing a 
product that could cause every air-conditioning unit in the United 
States to run 15 percent more efficiently, which is a direct spinoff 
from our space program.
  I have actually been told if this product proves to be as successful 
as it is anticipated to be that that improvement in efficiency in the 
air-conditioning units in homes and businesses all across America would 
more than save enough money to pay for our entire space program, from 
its very beginnings from the early days of Mercury right through to the 
present.
  So there is a lot going on in space, there is a lot of future there, 
and I believe every American supports what our men and women are doing 
in the space program. I rise today to congratulate all those working in 
this field and encourage all of my colleagues in the House to continue 
to

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support our manned space flight program.

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