[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 4]
[House]
[Pages 5630-5631]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




            SURRENDERING OUR SUPERIORITY IN SPACE TECHNOLOGY

  (Mr. POE of Texas asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, for as long as I can remember, America 
has reached for the stars. Nothing has gotten more kids to do their 
math and science homework than the dream of being an astronaut. All of 
America stood still, huddled at their black-and-white TV sets, when 
Neil Armstrong stepped out on the moon.
  America put a man on the moon, setting the imaginations of our 
children on fire, feeding that good old American desire to be the best, 
to achieve, to dream of things not yet done. But the administration 
says they are canceling NASA's Project Constellation and America's 
return to the moon. America is surrendering our superiority in space 
technology to the Russians.
  Unilateral space abandonment is nonsense. So next time our astronauts 
want to go into space, they will have to hitchhike with the Chinese or 
the Russians. And if we need to repair a defense satellite, I am sure 
our buddies, the Chinese, will be glad to give us a lift. Yeah, right. 
Our children, our future will suffer for this incompetent decision. 
This ought not to be.
  But that's just the way it is.

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