[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 74 (Thursday, May 26, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Page S3419]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     50TH ANNIVERSARY OF PRESIDENT KENNEDY'S CALL TO GO TO THE MOON

  Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, May 25, 2011, marked the 50th 
anniversary of President John F. Kennedy's speech that set the original 
dream of American exploration with a goal of sending a human to the 
Moon and returning him safely by the end of the decade.
  President Kennedy's speech was more than a call for a Moon shot. It 
was 17 days after Alan Shepard became the second human in space, and 
the Nation was still recovering from a recession and recovering from 
the Cuban missile crisis. That year, President Kennedy took the unusual 
step of coming to Congress in May to address urgent, ``extraordinary'' 
national needs. During his speech, he said, ``In a very real sense, it 
will not be one man going to the Moon . . . it will be an entire 
Nation. For all of us must work to put him there.'' He sounded the 
starting gun of the space race. In that race, the United States and its 
young President were determined to cross the finish line first.
  America is no longer in a space race. We are in a race for our 
economic future. We are not racing other countries. We are racing 
ourselves. To win this economic race, we must do as President Obama has 
urged us. We must work together to out-innovate, out-educate, and out-
build our competitors. That is why I fight so hard to invest in 
America's exploration and discovery which creates jobs for today and 
jobs for tomorrow.
  As we were 50 years ago, our space program is embarking on a new 
journey. This year, after 30 years of great service NASA will retire 
the Space Shuttle with honor and dignity. We will bid goodbye to this 
workhorse that launched and fixed Hubble and built the International 
Space Station.
  Last year, Congress gave NASA a new path forward. My colleagues and I 
fought to pass a new authorization bill. It was not easy. There was 
confusion and chaos about the path forward, and the austere budget 
environment required tough choices. The authorization law established a 
balanced space program. It increased investments in Science and 
Aeronautics so we can explore the universe, protect the planet, and 
make air travel safer and more reliable. The bill provided for new 
Space Technology research and development to make exploring space safer 
and more efficient. Finally, it gave us a sustainable human space 
flight program that extends the International Space Station lab to 
2020, opens low Earth orbit to commercial providers, for cargo first, 
then crew, and broadens human reach beyond low Earth orbit.
  NASA will begin building our next generation vehicles to go beyond 
low Earth orbit, the heavy lift rocket and the Orion capsule. The 
private sector will build commercial cargo and crew vehicles, with NASA 
providing the venture capital to get cargo and astronauts to the 
International Space Station while building a whole new industry.
  The shuttle is retiring, but our missions in space will sail on. It 
doesn't matter how we get there. We can't be defined by our Space 
Transportation System. Our future in space will be built on innovation 
and discovery from commercial rockets taking cargo and someday 
astronauts to the International Space Station; to the James Webb Space 
Telescope discovering new galaxies and new frontiers in science; to new 
technologies to grab and fix damaged satellites in space with robots.
  New technologies don't just happen. They come from American ingenuity 
that is built on discovery and innovation. They have made America great 
and they have made us a nation worth imitating.
  As we look around the world, we see people who yearn to imitate the 
democracy we have, who brought down dictators and autocrats with 
American innovations like Twitter. They believe representative, 
parliamentary bodies can give them an orderly way to move government 
forward and will give them better lives, helping them compete in the 
world economy.
  Already, emerging nations, like China, are imitating our investments 
in discovery and innovation. China is embarking on an ambitious space 
program that is reaching for the stars with satellites and astronauts. 
China is increasing its science research budget 20 percent each year, 
seeking to replicate our National Science Foundation.
  I don't worry about being in a race with China or other nations. 
China can't beat us. We can only beat ourselves by losing our drive to 
reach for great goals and by failing to invest in the research and 
development that will help us achieve them. I will keep fighting to for 
the innovation and discovery that makes America worth imitating.
  I believe in the space program. I believe in space technology, in 
green science that helps us understand and protect the planet, and in 
heliophysics that studies the Sun so we know when solar storms could 
knock out the power grid. I believe in the men and women of the space 
program like the astronauts who risk their lives to extend our human 
reach in space, the astrophysicists who teach us about dark matter and 
the origins of the universe, and the machinists who craft the precision 
robots that explore the universe for us. The men and women of the space 
program are the best of the American economy, creating jobs for today 
and jobs for tomorrow.
  President Kennedy knew we needed all of the Nation's talents to go 
safely to the Moon. Fifty years later, we live in different, and more 
frugal, times. We must not let our urgent, immediate needs keep us from 
investing in programs that see results well into the future. While 
looking toward immediate national needs, President Kennedy also urged 
investments for the long haul. He wanted the United States to take 
risks on science that changed the world, putting people on the Moon, 
and on a civilian weather satellite in space.
  While America waits on our new crop of innovations to mature, we will 
keep reaping the harvest of the discoveries and investments made long 
ago that have become the Internet, medical imaging like MRIs, and 
countless other products that help American companies invent new 
products and create new jobs.
  In these frugal times, we should all work together to keep alive 
President Kennedy's spirit of exploration and discovery and win the 
future.

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