[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 62 (Wednesday, May 15, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E813]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     SPACE EXPLORATION ACT OF 2002

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. NICK LAMPSON

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, May 15, 2002

  Mr. LAMPSON. Mr. Speaker, as you know, much of my attention these 
days has been on the International Space Station. I, along with other 
Members, am fighting hard to restore the capabilities that the 
Administration has tried to cut from this important program. We need a 
Space Station that has the crew size, the research capabilities, the 
habitation facilities, and the crew rescue vehicles that successive 
Congresses and Administrations have supported. And we need to keep our 
commitments to our international partners on this program. It is going 
to be a tough fight, but as Gene Kranz was fond of saying: ``failure is 
not an option''.
  However, I don't think that our current struggles over the Space 
Station should divert us from the fact that we are facing a much deeper 
crisis--a crisis of commitment. The nation's human space flight program 
is adrift, with no clear commitment to any goals after the completion 
of the Space Station. I'd like to talk about that today, and I'd like 
to offer a way forward for the nation that I think can revitalize our 
space program, energize our industrial and academic sectors, and 
inspire our young people.
  It was 41 years ago this month that the United States took its first, 
halting steps in the human exploration of space. On May 5, 1961 Alan 
Shepard was launched on a fifteen-minute suborbital flight. A month 
before, the very first human flew in space when the Soviet cosmonaut 
Yuri Gagarin completed a single orbit of the Earth.
  It was an exciting time. At the end of May of that year, a young, 
energetic President Kennedy announced that the United States intended 
to land a man on the Moon by the end of the decade. The so-called 
``Space Race'' was on! Yet, five hundred years from now, I don't think 
our descendants will look back at the Apollo moon landings as just an 
interesting example of the geopolitical rivalries that marked the 
twentieth century. Instead, I think that the real significance of 
Apollo will be that it marked the first major step in humanity's 
journey outward into the solar system.
  Would anyone who watched Neil Armstong step onto the lunar surface 
for the first time in 1969 believe that three decades later we would 
still be stuck in Earth orbit? Certainly not me. And I still find it 
hard to believe.
  That is not to diminish what the United States has accomplished in 
space over the last thirty years. We have sent space probes to every 
planet in the solar system except Pluto. We have built and continue to 
operate the world's first reusable space shuttle. And as we speak, we 
have a permanent crew orbiting overhead in the first truly 
international space station. We should all take pride in what has been 
accomplished to date. But we should not be satisfied.
  It is now thirty years since the last American--the last 
representative of Planet Earth--left the surface of the Moon and 
returned to Earth. And we haven't ventured outward since that time. In 
my opinion, that's thirty years too long!
  We have a solar system to explore. We need to find out if there is 
life beyond Earth. And we need to build the space-based observatories 
and research stations that will allow us to search for Earth-like 
plants around other stars. Space exploration is not about robotic 
spacecraft versus astronauts. Rather it is about using both robots and 
humans to explore and to gather knowledge.
  I thus am introducing today the ``Space Exploration Act of 2002.'' I 
am pleased to have bipartisan support with Representatives Ralph Hall, 
Lamar Smith, Gene Green, Ken Bentsen, Sheila Jackson-Lee, Brad Carson 
and Martin Frost as original cosponsors. Some may say we can't afford a 
mission to Mars at this time. Maybe so, but my bill says that while 
Mars is the ultimate destination for a phased program of exploring the 
inner solar system, there are preliminary voyages of exploration and 
science that we can and should start preparing for now . . . voyages 
that will help us prepare for the exploration and eventual settlement 
of Mars--while having great scientific merit in their own right.
  The ``Space Exploration Act of 2002'' requires the NASA Administrator 
to set the following goals for the future activities of NASA's human 
spaceflight program:
  Within 8 years of enactment, the development and flight demonstration 
of a reusable space vehicle capable of carrying humans from low earth 
orbit to the L1 and L2 Earth-Sun libration points and back, to the 
Earth-Moon liberation points and back, and to lunar orbit and back.
  Within 10 years of enactment, the development and flight 
demonstration of a reusable space vehicle capable of carrying humans 
from low Earth orbit to and from an Earth-orbit crossing asteroid and 
rendezvousing with it.
  Within 15 years of enactment, the development and flight 
demonstration of a reusable space vehicle capable of carrying humans 
from lunar orbit to the surface of the Moon and back, as well as the 
deployment of a human-tended habitation and research facility on the 
lunar surface.
  Within 20 years of enactment, the development and flight 
demonstration of a reusable space vehicle capable of carrying humans 
from Martian orbit, the deployment of a human tended habitation and 
research facility on the surface of a Martian moon, and the development 
and flight demonstration of a reusable space vehicle capable of 
carrying humans from Martian orbit to the surface of Mars and back.
  The bill establishes an Office of Exploration within NASA, headed by 
an Associate Administrator, which will be responsible for planning, 
budgeting, and managing activities undertaken to accomplish the above 
goals.
  The Administrator will be required to establish a process for 
conducting competitions for innovative, cost-effective mission concepts 
to accomplish the above goals, which will be open to industry, 
academia, nongovernmental research organizations, NASA Centers, and 
other government organizations.
  International participation and cost sharing will be encouraged. The 
Administrator will be required to establish an independent panel to 
conduct a merit-based competitive review of the proposals submitted and 
an independent external review of the cost estimate and funding profile 
of the competitively selected proposals. These findings must be 
reported to Congress.
  The implementation plans of the competitively selected proposals must 
be updated every year by the manager of the project and the 
Administrator must have an independent external review panel review 
each of the updated implementation plans and report these findings to 
Congress.
  The bill authorizes $50 million for FY 2003 and $200 million for FY 
2004 to carry out these activities.
  If we are ever going to break out of Earth orbit and conduct 
comprehensive human and robotic exploration of our solar system and 
universe, we need to overcome a serious obstacle. That obstacle is not 
technical, although human exploration will be very technically 
challenging. And the obstacle is not financial, although we need to 
ensure that human exploration is done in as cost-efficient and 
financially responsible a manner as possible. No, these aren't the real 
obstacles to success. The real obstacle is the lack of a commitment to 
get started. We don't need another national commission to come up with 
goals for human space flight beyond low Earth orbit--what we need is a 
national commitment to carrying out any one of the many worthy goals 
that have been articulated to date.
  I want the United States to get started. And I hope that we can 
interest our international friends in working with us on this grand 
undertaking. Because space exploration is humanity's future--not just 
America's. But I am an American, and I want to make sure that at a 
minimum America steps up to the challenge of achieving our destiny in 
space.




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