[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 11]
[Senate]
[Pages 15421-15422]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




      COMMENDING THE NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate 
proceed to the immediate consideration of H. Con. Res. 448, which was 
received from the House.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will report the 
concurrent resolution by title.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       A concurrent resolution (H. Con. Res. 448) commending the 
     National Aeronautics and Space Administration on the 
     completion of the Space Shuttle's second Return-to-Flight 
     mission.

  There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the 
concurrent resolution.
  Mr. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, the House has passed and sent to the 
Senate, H. Con. Res. 448, which commends NASA and the crew of the Space 
Shuttle Discovery on the successful completion of the STS-121 mission 
earlier this week.
  I support this resolution and urge my colleagues to join with me and 
provide the Senate concurrence to this resolution. I also note that the 
House passed this resolution on July 20, the 37th anniversary of the 
Apollo 11 lunar landing, adding special significance to the action we 
are being asked to endorse.
  The resolution recognizes and applauds the very successful STS-121 
mission, which accomplished all of its test objectives regarding on-
orbit repair procedures, as well as delivering 14 tons of equipment and 
supplies to the International Space Station, and a third space station 
crew member. This restores the space station to its full crew 
complement since the Columbia accident and allows for additional crew 
time to be spent doing on-orbit research.
  The mission also demonstrated that changes made to the external tank, 
while still not fully completed, resulted in the least amount of foam 
shedding during lift-off and the cleanest, most undamaged underside of 
the shuttle yet seen.
  The successful completion of this second Return-to-Flight test 
mission is especially significant because it means the Shuttle Program 
is once again on the threshold of completing the important work of 
assembling the International Space Station.
  If all goes as expected, the next mission to the Space Station will 
take place in just a little over 5 weeks from now, near the end of 
August. That mission will deliver additional supplies and equipment to 
the space station, including a new structural truss element and an 
additional set of solar arrays. Once the solar arrays are deployed, 
they will not only provide additional power to the space station, which 
can be used for an increasing number of scientific experiments during 
the ongoing assembly period, but they will begin to make the space 
station one of the brightest objects in the night sky. By the time the 
space station is completed, it will be brighter than any other object 
in the night sky besides the Moon, an ever-present reminder that we are 
a species no longer confined to the Earth and able to make

[[Page 15422]]

use of that unique environment of low-Earth orbit for research that can 
benefit all of humanity.
  I applaud the crew of Discovery and the team at NASA who all worked 
together to restore this Nation's ability to conduct the human 
exploration and utilization of space.
  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the concurrent 
resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motion to 
reconsider be laid upon the table, and that any statements relating to 
the concurrent resolution be printed in the Record.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  The concurrent resolution (H. Con. Res. 448) was agreed to.
  The preamble was agreed to.

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