[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 125 (Wednesday, October 6, 2004)]
[House]
[Pages H8376-H8377]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 CONGRATULATING MOJAVE AEROSPACE VENTURE FOR WINNING THE ANSARI X PRIZE

  Mr. ROHRABACHER. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree 
to the resolution (H. Res. 820) to congratulate Mojave Aerospace 
Ventures for winning the privately funded $10,000,000 Ansari X Prize 
and commend the X Prize Foundation for spurring this achievement, as 
amended.
  The Clerk read as follows:

                              H. Res. 820

       Whereas the Ansari X Prize competition was created to 
     promote the emerging commercial space transportation industry 
     and inspire a new generation of explorers by accelerating the 
     development of low-cost space launch vehicles for space 
     exploration, tourism, science, and commerce;
       Whereas the X Prize Foundation, headed by space 
     entrepreneur Dr. Peter Diamandis, offered a $10,000,000 prize 
     to the first contestant to privately finance, develop, and 
     launch a spaceship capable of carrying 3 people to 100 
     kilometers (62.5 miles) above the Earth, returning safely to 
     Earth, and repeating the launch with the same ship within 2 
     weeks;
       Whereas the Ansari X Prize inspired 26 teams from 7 nations 
     to invest their private funds and personal toil in pursuit of 
     the dream of private space flight;
       Whereas Mojave Aerospace Ventures, led by aviation pioneer 
     Burt Rutan and software pioneer Paul Allen, designed and 
     developed SpaceShipOne, the winning entry in the Ansari X 
     Prize competition;
       Whereas on June 21, 2004, SpaceShipOne, piloted by Mike 
     Melvill, accomplished the first privately funded suborbital 
     flight into space in the skies above Mojave, California;
       Whereas on September 29, 2004, SpaceShipOne, once again 
     piloted by Mike Melvill, successfully completed the first of 
     2 suborbital flights in pursuit of the Ansari X Prize 
     competition, flying to an altitude of 337,600 feet (102.9 
     km); and
       Whereas on October 4, 2004, SpaceShipOne, piloted by Brian 
     Binnie, successfully completed the second of 2 suborbital 
     flights in pursuit of the Ansari X Prize less than one week 
     later, flying to an altitude of 368,000 feet (112.2 km), and 
     thereby winning the Ansari X Prize competition: Now, 
     therefore, be it
       Resolved,  That the House of Representatives--
       (1) congratulates Mojave Aerospace Ventures, led by Burt 
     Rutan and Paul Allen, for winning the privately funded 
     $10,000,000 Ansari X Prize and inspiring the next generation 
     of space explorers to even greater heights;
       (2) commends the pilots of SpaceShipOne for their skill and 
     bravery; and
       (3) commends the founders of, contributors to, and 
     management of the X Prize Foundation for spurring this 
     achievement.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
California (Mr. Rohrabacher) and the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Lampson) 
each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from California (Mr. Rohrabacher).


                             General Leave

  Mr. ROHRABACHER. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all 
Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend 
their remarks and include extraneous material on H. Res. 820.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from California?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. ROHRABACHER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  Mr. Speaker, there are two kind of frontiers. There are physical 
frontiers: uncharted land, unseen depths of oceans, unexplored space. 
And then there are frontiers of imagination: frontiers that require us 
to think a new way, to have a vision beyond what others see, to 
question assumptions about what is technologically possible.
  Today, we honor Mojave Aerospace Ventures' SpaceShipOne, the winner 
of the X Prize for traversing this second kind of frontier.
  Suborbital space is not a new destination. Brian Binnie and Mike 
Melvill, the pilots of SpaceShipOne, did not fly higher, farther or 
longer than the astronauts who came before them, yet Brian and Mike, 
together with SpaceShipOne designer Burt Rutan and sponsor Paul Allen, 
have nonetheless crossed a critical frontier. They have accepted and 
exceeded the X Prize Foundation's challenge, proving that commercial 
space transportation is viable and that space and its exploration and 
utilization will not be the sole arena of government, but is also open 
to the private sector and to private individuals and private companies.
  The achievement of Mojave Aerospace will no doubt spur more 
entrepreneurial space ventures and inspire other dreamers to become 
doers.
  Burt Rutan's design for SpaceShipOne has been said to echo that of 
the X-15, an experimental Cold War rocket plane like SpaceShipOne. It 
was launched in flight from a larger aircraft. It is not only Burt 
Rutan's elegant design, however, that reminds us of another time. The 
spirit of his team and the X Prize competition recalls the spirit of 
the early years of our Nation's space race. It recalls the Charles 
Lindbergh trans-Atlantic flight which was also the result of a prize 
that was offered for the first accomplishment. That accomplishment was, 
of course, the first nonstop trip from New York to Paris.

                              {time}  0130

  It also reminds us of Chuck Yeager, and others like Chuck Yeager, who 
broke the records of the sound barrier and other records in flight. It 
reminds us of these other moments when these other barriers were broken 
and that new opportunities were created in the accomplishment.
  This spirit of exploration, this drive to push the limits of 
technology and endurance, is a signature of the American experience; 
that human flight into space, we now can say, is no longer the arena 
only of government and only the purview of companies that are directly 
financed by government, but now is open to private individuals and 
private companies and private enterprise and individual enterprise.
  The X Prize awakens us to this spirit with a new generation of 
explorers. It awakens the spirit in students who will study science and 
math and engineering, as well as those who have been inspired toward 
bold innovations in other fields. Like Melvill, Binnie and Rutan, and 
the Mojave Aerospace Ventures, their team, these new explorers, will 
inspire the dreamers and give them courage and determination to turn 
their dreams into reality.
  Today, we honor the winners of the X Prize for their victory and for 
completing the first privately funded, human, suborbital space flight. 
We also commend the X Prize Foundation and the 25 other teams who vied 
for the prize. We look forward to watching commercial space 
transportation to continue to develop, engaging new investors and 
engineers, scientists and pilots in the business of exploration.
  This X Prize concept of offering a reward for an achievement, a 
technological achievement, is not a time that

[[Page H8377]]

is past. What we have seen, through this accomplishment by Mojave 
Aerospace, is that this may be a vehicle to achieve new goals in space, 
and we will be looking into this. Hopefully, it will encourage further 
achievements that will help the United States and all of humankind set 
new records and push the frontiers.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. LAMPSON. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I might 
consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise to support the resolution by the chairman of the 
Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics congratulating the winners of the 
Ansari X Prize on their intrepid voyages to the edge of space.
  A century ago, as Orville Wright dropped down to the sand at Kitty 
Hawk after his 12-second flight into history, the impact of aviation on 
the world was only dimly seen. Yet, today, we take for granted that the 
other side of the world is only a mere few hours from our front door. 
Now, we honor the next Orville and Wilbur, Mike Melvill and Brian 
Binnie, pilots of SpaceShipOne's prize-winning flights.
  In the space of a week, they have shown us all a new opportunity. If 
you are not satisfied with reading about space, well, the day is not 
far off when you can go there yourself.
  SpaceShipOne did not get very far into space, but then, neither did 
Alan Shepard on his first Mercury flight. So let us not forget, though, 
that Alan Shepard later made it to the moon.
  The resolution before the House also honors Burt Rutan, the 
pioneering designer at the head of Mojave Aerospace Ventures. Some 40 
airplanes share Rutan's distinctive designs, and if one visits the 
National Air and Space Museum here on the mall, they can see his 
Voyager, which flew around the world nonstop in 1986.
  That it was Rutan who broke the barrier of affordable access to space 
probably does not surprise many in the aviation fraternity, but as Tom 
Wolfe so memorably put it in The Right Stuff, ``No bucks, no Buck 
Rogers.''
  Without Paul Allen's willingness to commit real money, SpaceShipOne 
might still be little more than scribbles on a napkin in a filing 
cabinet. Sometimes we have to look beyond the business case.
  There is something about a contest that seems to inspire great deeds. 
We owe a great deal to Dr. Peter Diamandis, president of the Ansari X 
Prize Foundation. He set the goal that fired the imaginations of those 
eager to open space to the rest of us. The House is right to include 
him in our congratulations.
  So, Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to join the gentleman from California 
in honoring the achievements of the Ansari X Prize winners and 
recommend that the House approve this resolution.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. ROHRABACHER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume. I have no other requests to speak, and I have just one last 
thought.
  I believe that the investor invested $26 million in this project. We 
have no doubt that, if this project was just a government-funded 
project, that it probably would have been in the hundreds of millions 
of dollars. We will be looking at this X Prize concept of encouraging 
the private sector to try to achieve specific goals that would be 
worthy of such prizes and would also be very, very helpful to our whole 
technological efforts of our country.
  So we will be looking at this as a vehicle in the future, and I am 
looking forward to working with the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Lampson) 
and people on both sides of the aisle, whose goal it is to make sure 
that America remains the leader in space. This is a great achievement 
today. We congratulate all those who are involved with SpaceShipOne.
  Mr. THOMAS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H. Res. 820, 
which commends Mojave Aerospace Ventures and their great success 
capturing the Ansari X Prize on Monday, October 4. I am proud to 
represent Burt Rutan and his team based in Mojave, California, and it 
has been a great pleasure to watch their success.
  The first private effort to enter space has succeeded. As part of a 
competition stimulating private enterprise in an area that formerly was 
totally government-controlled, the Ansari X Prize Foundation and the 
collaborators of Mojave Aerospace Ventures have proven that private 
organizations can achieve anything they put their minds to. The sky is 
no longer the limit.
  Although almost 80 years apart, the X Prize is similar to the reward 
that in part led Charles Lindbergh to fly across the Atlantic in 1927. 
That achievement sparked the initial age of commercial aviation, and 
this achievement truly begins the era of commercial space aviation.
  I congratulate Burt Rutan, pilots Mike Melvill and Brian Binnie, all 
the employees of Scaled Composites, and all those community volunteers 
who worked tirelessly to prepare for this event at the Mojave 
Spaceport. In recent days they have provided us with an exciting 
glimpse of the future, and I look forward to their next endeavors.
  Mr. SMITH of Washington. Mr. Speaker, today, I wish to extend to Paul 
Allen and the entire SpaceShipOne team my heartfelt congratulations on 
their huge achievement. Since Orville and Wilbur Wright first took to 
the skies, mankind has consistently dreamed of loftier goals and 
continued to push the edge in manned flight, both commercially and 
through government endeavors. On October 4, the entire SpaceShipOne 
team expanded man's dream of commercial flight into space. While a 
noble achievement, this is but the first step in a long process towards 
the dream of many on Earth to fly to the reaches of outer space. Some 
day this dream will be a reality and it is because of the efforts and 
skills of people like those at Scaled Composites and the visionaries 
like Paul Allen that will make this dream a reality.
  Mr. SIMPSON. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate and commend 
Mr. Paul Allen, Mr. Burt Rutan and all the men and women of Mojave 
Aerospace Ventures on winning the Ansari X Prize competition.
  On December 17, 1903, Wilbur and Orville Wright made the first 
sustained, controlled, powered flight of an airplane at Kitty Hawk, NC. 
Now, a little over a century later Mojave Aerospace Ventures has 
followed in the footsteps of the Wright Brothers by designing, building 
and successfully flying the world's first privately funded spacecraft.
  Mr. Speaker, the private support of Paul Allen, for the Mojave 
Aerospace Ventures was critical in reaching this historical milestone. 
This accomplishment exemplifies the ingenuity on which our Nation was 
founded and developed. Mr. Allen has shown that the entrepreneurial 
spirit which has made America great is alive and well and will continue 
towards even greater achievements in the future.
  Mr. ROHRABACHER. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. LAMPSON. Mr. Speaker, I have no other speakers, and I yield back 
the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida). The 
question is on the motion offered by the gentleman from California (Mr. 
Rohrabacher) that the House suspend the rules and agree to the 
resolution, H. Res. 820, as amended.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds having voted in favor 
thereof) the rules were suspended and the resolution, as amended, was 
agreed to.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

                          ____________________