[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 51 (Tuesday, April 20, 2004)]
[House]
[Pages H2167-H2168]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    SAVE THE HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Washington (Mr. McDermott) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, I rise to deliver the thoughtful opinions 
about the Hubble Space Telescope from the fifth grade math class at 
Island Park Elementary School. All 25 students unanimously believe that 
the Hubble Space Telescope should be saved.
  I recently visited Thelma Ritchie's class as a part of Hubble 
Awareness Day. It is a program I started to listen directly to the 
American people about the future of the Hubble Space Telescope. 
According to the Administrator of NASA, the Hubble has no future. Mr. 
O'Keefe may be the only person in America who actually believes that, 
but he certainly is one person who can kill the Hubble if he wants to.
  Students at Island Park Elementary believe Hubble should have a 
future. So do I. So do millions of other students and scientists and 
ordinary people across America.
  Thelma Ritchie's students recently spent the entire week working on 
Hubble-related activities. The day I was there, students were using 
Hubble images and math to learn how to accurately estimate the billions 
of stars visible without counting all of them.
  The classroom fueled inspiration amid the wonder of scientific 
discovery. Hubble pictures were everywhere. You could see the 
excitement and wonder in the eyes of very young students. Some had 
crafted Hubble models. Others had drawings. Many of them were totally 
engaged in the pursuit of scientific discovery inspired by the Hubble 
Telescope.
  Thelma's classroom, like every math and science classroom in America, 
is an incubator for future scientists, astronauts and astronomers, and 
one tool at their disposal will be lost if we do not act and save the 
Hubble.
  Before I arrived, Ms. Ritchie had given her young scientists an 
assignment: Read the House Resolution that 47 colleagues and I have 
sponsored to save the Hubble and tell us what to do. Here is what the 
students said.
  From Claire and Juliana: ``Without the Hubble, space would be a half-
solved code for us to crack.''
  Byron said: ``In my opinion, NASA should go and fix the Hubble, since 
it has been giving tons of information.''
  Matt said: ``I think NASA should keep Hubble up there,'' and 
Charlotte added, ``because then younger kids can get more interested in 
science.''
  Shoshana offered this: ``Advice for NASA would be pretty much to 
listen to the public and scientists and do what is best for us all.''
  Sidney said: ``Not only does it give scientists answers, but it 
teaches kids way more about space.''
  Alyssa was even more direct: ``I disagree with NASA and I think they 
should keep the Hubble.''
  NASA's Administrator claimed that safety is the reason for letting 
the Hubble die, that it would be too risky to send the space shuttle to 
service the Hubble, as it has in the past.
  Let us be clear: Space flight is risky, and safety must be paramount. 
But it is hard to follow the Administrator's logic on safety at the 
same time the administration wants to go to Mars. I think Mr. O'Keefe 
is seeing red, partly over the criticism of Hubble, but mostly because 
the President wants to go to

[[Page H2168]]

Mars. Personally, I wish he would, but that is a different discussion.
  Hubble's mission is not over. Hundreds of millions of dollars in new 
Hubble equipment, some of it designed with the help of University of 
Washington astronomers, is built, paid for and ready for deployment. 
Tens of millions of dollars of equipment is already built.
  Hubble's mission is not over. There are new worlds to discover, new 
images to take us even closer to the moment of creation and more 
children across America to inspire.
  The Hubble Space Telescope has produced great advancements in 
science, yet Hubble's most important contribution may be its 
inspiration. It is the cheapest ad ever produced to encourage young 
children to become scientists. If anyone needs reassurance that America 
can compete globally in math and science, they should visit Thelma 
Ritchie's fifth grade class at the Island Park School. You know how to 
do math, and so do they. Here is their answer: Two plus two equals save 
the Hubble.

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