[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 34 (Thursday, March 16, 2006)]
[House]
[Page H1123]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         PROTECTING THE CROWN JEWEL OF AMERICA'S SPACE PROGRAM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Schiff) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SCHIFF. Madam Speaker, last week was one of extraordinary triumph 
for the Nation's space program. On Thursday, NASA announced that the 
Cassini spacecraft may have found evidence of liquid water reservoirs 
that erupt in Yellowstone-Like geysers on Saturn's moon Enceladus. This 
stunning announcement was followed the next day by the successful 
orbital insertion of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter around the Red 
Planet.
  I stand before the House today to celebrate these incredible 
technological achievements and wondrous scientific discoveries, but 
most of all, to honor those who made it possible, the men and women of 
the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
  JPL, which is managed for NASA by the California Institute of 
Technology, has designed, built and controlled many of America's most 
successful unmanned space craft. JPL has pioneered our exploration of 
space from Explorer 1, America's first satellite, to Ranger and 
Surveyor craft that paved the way for Apollo to the Voyager spacecraft 
that explore the outer planets and are still continuing to send back 
data even as they leave our solar system.
  JPL missions have increased our comprehension beyond anything even 
contemplated half a century ago. Every American space probe that has 
visited another body our solar system was managed by JPL. Through the 
wonders of technology, we have circled Jupiter with Galileo, sampled a 
comet with Stardust and rolled across the surface of Mars with spirit 
and opportunity. Cassini, which has been orbiting Saturn for just over 
18 months, has transmitted stunning photographs and invaluable data on 
Saturn and its moons, while the Mar's Reconnaissance Orbiter, which 
will begin its science mission later this year, is expected to transmit 
more information about Mars than all of our previous Mars missions 
combined.

                              {time}  1900

  JPL's spectacular missions have not only brought us incalculable 
scientific data; they have also sustained American's interest in space 
flight, especially the Mars missions.
  Now, as NASA prepares to accelerate the development of the Crew 
Exploration Vehicle and moves forward with plans to return humans to 
the Moon, the space agency and Congress must take care to continue to 
provide adequate resources to support the robotic exploration of space 
that is JPL's specialty.
  Over the past months, NASA has worked to put into place a 
comprehensive program aimed at realizing the President's goal of 
landing an American on Mars. This is an ambitious and worthy goal, but 
the technological and physiological challenges, not to mention the 
cost, mean that it may be decades before an American walks on the 
Martian surface.
  In the interim, we can continue to explore the Red Planet and our 
neighbors with relatively inexpensive probes that are better equipped 
than humans to survive the extreme hardship of long-duration space 
travel.
  Madam Speaker, as we consider the future of our space program, I urge 
NASA and my colleagues not to deprive JPL, one of the crown jewels of 
American science and technology, of adequate resources. The Mars 
program is one of the centerpieces of JPL's focus and the lab has 
several exciting missions planned for the next couple decades.
  But even as JPL unlocks the secrets of our planetary neighbors, it is 
poised to begin an ambitious search for habitable worlds around the 
stars, a search that will help to answer one of humankind's oldest 
questions: Are we alone in the universe?
  SIM PlanetQuest scheduled for launch in the middle of the next decade 
will precisely determine the distances to stars throughout our galaxy 
and will probe nearby stars for Earth-sized planets. SIM will open a 
window to a new world of discoveries.
  The Mars program and SIM PlanetQuest are ambitious and resource-
intensive missions with long lead times. JPL has also been a leading 
NASA center for the Explorer that in the past has offered opportunities 
to carry out small and medium-sized missions that can be developed and 
launched in a short timeframe.
  The Explorer program engages academia, industry, NASA centers and 
government labs in strong partnerships that provide young engineers, 
scientists, and managers the opportunity to develop and gain valuable 
experience on missions from inception to launch.
  Unfortunately, as a result of budget cuts over the last few years, 
this important program is quietly being phased out. But I believe that 
we must consider the significant and damaging effect this will have on 
NASA's scientific and technological program.
  I am especially concerned about the recent decision to terminate the 
NuSTAR mission before its interim confirmation review. This action will 
have permanent damaging consequences as it is causing the scientific 
community as well as industry to question the reliability of NASA as a 
partner and the wisdom of investing internal resources in the proposal 
development process.
  The termination calls NASA's commitment to the peer review selection 
process into serious question and illustrates, in my view, a lack of 
appreciation of the serious investment made by the team at NASA to 
date.
  While I understand that NASA is facing difficult budgetary decisions, 
the priorities must be set, it would be a severe blow to NASA science 
to allow such a low-cost, productive, and unique program like Explorers 
to be so severely cut. In particular the unprecedented action taken 
with NuSTAR will have lasting consequences for all future competed 
missions.
  Madam Speaker, the decisions we make this year will have profound 
implications for the future of America's space program. Even as we 
celebrate JPL's most recent successes, I urge NASA and my colleagues to 
work to ensure JPL's leadership in exploring our solar system and the 
Universe beyond.

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