[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 17]
[Senate]
[Page 23408]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              SPACESHIPONE

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, last week, SpaceShipOne completed its third 
successful flight into space. Burt Rutan, Brian Binnie, Michael 
Melvill, and their colleagues on the Tier One Project team deserve a 
place on the honor roll of our Nation's greatest explorers and 
innovators. Their bravery, ingenuity, and hard work have launched the 
age of commercial space flight. I also commend the men and women who 
had the vision to establish the Ansari X Prize. They all had dreams--
and they, with American spirit, captured their dream.
  America has always been on the cutting edge of space travel. We 
landed the first people on the moon, performed the first docking in 
space, made the first successful soft landings on Mars, and built the 
world's first fleet of reusable spacecraft. We have explored eight of 
the nine planets and returned a treasure trove of information about our 
moon, asteroids, and comets.
  As I speak, our spacecraft beam back scientific data from Mars, 
Saturn, and the orbit of our own planet. Soon, a spacecraft will begin 
to send data from Mercury and another will return from a close 
encounter with a comet.
  Through NASA's Discovery Program, universities and research labs work 
in partnership with Washington policy makers to return valuable 
information about asteroids and our sun. And last, but not least, we 
have spearheaded the 16-nation effort to build and crew the 
International Space Station.
  America will continue to push the outer reaches of space exploration. 
We will return the space shuttle to flight, finish the International 
Space Station, continue our efforts to explore the Moon, Mars, comets, 
asteroids, and outer planets. We will also send more humans into space. 
In doing this, we will achieve the President's goal to ``extend human 
presence across the solar system.''
  The successful launch of SpaceShipOne shows that the private sector 
can achieve spectacular successes. In the future, entrepreneurs will 
launch many of the routine spaceflight activities in low earth orbit.
  In time, privately financed, privately directed innovators will press 
forward with the exploration of the Moon and Mars. Space offers 
extraordinary potential for commerce and adventure, for new innovations 
and new tests of will. As Americans, we can't help but reach for the 
stars. It's our nature. It's our destiny.
  The President's Centennial Challenges program encourages the private 
sector's efforts to fulfill this dream. His program is providing 
incentives for inventors and entrepreneurs to develop less expensive 
spacecraft, improve robotic technology, and encourage future 
astronauts.
  The President supports a vigorous role for government in exploring 
places beyond our planet. He believes in the promise of space 
exploration. And he believes, as I do, that, in time, private citizens 
and entrepreneurs will lead humankind to the stars.

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