[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 9]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 12390-12391]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           THE FINAL FRONTIER

                                 ______
                                 

                              HON. TED POE

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                       Monday, September 12, 2016

  Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, the year was nineteen-sixty-nine. 
Everyone around the country was glued to their TVs, waiting for video 
footage of one of the most incredible achievements in human history to 
hit their screens: a man on the moon. As a young adult in 1969, I 
watched Neil Armstrong set foot on the Moon and felt a swell of pride 
when the first word spoken on the moon was ``Houston.'' I am still 
proud to share a hometown with NASA.
  The journey to a moon landing included years of research, tests, and 
failures. These trials culminated into something that would have seemed 
unfathomable to anyone just a few years before. A man had piloted and 
landed a craft on the moon, gotten out, walked around, taken pictures, 
and returned home safely.
  The Space Race was a defining point of the Cold War, and perhaps the 
most exciting. The Cold War brought fear to the United States, 
including the looming threat of nuclear war. But the United States was 
not discouraged, and perservered to innovation with the American values 
of hard work and dedication. In the midst of fear, the invention of 
space travel created hope for the future. The Space Race gained as much 
attention as the Arms Race, and President Kennedy's fierce speeches 
reminded the American public that this endeavor was just as important 
in the war against the Soviet Union. Hundreds of the brightest minds in 
America were called upon not to prepare for war, but to become the new 
Columbus' and Magellans as explorers of this ``new and final 
frontier.''
  The Space Program quickly began to receive the same treatment as the 
Nuclear Arms Programs, with millions of dollars flowing into numerous 
top secret projects. The newly formed National Aeronautics and Space 
Administration, or NASA, was faced with one of the toughest jobs on the 
planet. How were they going to find the men smart enough to construct a 
device that could not only go to the moon but land for an extended 
duration and reenter Earth's atmosphere? Not to mention that a few 
years before a single computer had to have an entire room to be housed 
in, and they had to find the men brave (or foolish)

[[Page 12391]]

enough to fly such a contraption to its harsh and unforgiving 
destination.
  In the beginning, figuring out how we were going to put a man on the 
moon was not easy. Hundreds of men from all over the country were 
scratching their heads wondering how they were going to have enough 
fuel to get them there and back again with all the necessary equipment. 
It was John Houbolt, an engineer from Iowa who had an ingenious idea 
that, at the time, seemed ludicrous. Houbolt believed that more fuel 
could be conserved if the main craft stayed in orbit around the moon 
and much smaller lander would detach land on the moon, and then 
reattach with the main craft when it was time to depart.
  But this idea stretched so far from what NASA's current team was 
already working on that many dismissed it. They would have to 
completely redesign the rocket, not to mention design this new 
``lander'' and figure out how it would fit into the rocket with the 
astronauts. And they would have to finance even more training for the 
astronauts who would have to learn to detach and place the lander on 
the moon, and then relaunch and dock again with the orbiting rocket.
  But it didn't take long for Houbolt to make his point. He insisted 
that this was the best way to accomplish a moon mission, and after 
months of hard work and redesign after redesign, the lunar lander was 
born. The iconic ``spider'' shaped lander is now exhibited in museums 
around the country, and without it the Apollo missions would have never 
left the launch pad.
  But to pilot these machines of genius, some extraordinarily brave men 
were needed to explore the final frontier. NASA searched for some of 
the most gifted pilots and found one in the young Edward White from San 
Antonio. He was picked to man one of the early Gemini missions, Gemini 
4, which only orbited the earth before coming back and acted as a 
stepping stone before the Apollo missions. During this mission, White 
became the first American to walk in space, exiting the vehicle and 
looking down at the Earth below. He was so exhilarated by the 
experience that he refused to come back into the vehicle at first and 
had to be given a direct order before he would comply.
  ``I'm coming back in . . .'' he told Houston, ``and it's the saddest 
moment of my life.''
  Unfortunately, the story of how we made it to the moon is not without 
tragedies. After proving himself in the Gemini missions, Edward White 
was selected for the first Apollo mission. It was mere weeks before 
Apollo I was set to launch when the three-man crew was scheduled for a 
``plugs out the test,'' meaning they would go through the takeoff 
procedure without leaving the launch pad. Suddenly, a fire broke out in 
the main cabin. Pure oxygen quickly filled the tiny cabin, fueling the 
rapidly spreading fire, and ultimately killing all three men aboard.
  While such tragedies set us back in our pursuit of the moon, we have 
never surrendered to a challenge. The loss of these three brave men 
only caused NASA to crack down harder on the designs of the vessels 
that would take men to space, making them more efficient and safer than 
ever before. As technology evolves, space travel has become safer, 
however, disaster still strikes. We still remember the brave men and 
women aboard the Challenger and the Columbia during the shuttle 
missions. Portraits of these brave men and women adorn the halls of 
Congress, displayed for all visitors to see. Their sacrifice has only 
strengthened our resolve to reach for the stars. Failure is simply not 
an option.
  But apart from the men that space exploration has inspired or the 
technology that these programs created to make the world a better 
place, the space race had a profound effect on the nation. There has 
been nothing quite like it since. John F. Kennedy, whether or not you 
liked the man or his policy, definitely had a passion for the space 
program, and he brought that passion to each and every one of his 
public speeches. It was this passion, along with the dedication of all 
the members involved with the project, that was passed along to the 
American public. Whether we were watching with baited breath from our 
televisions at home, engineering the rocket or flying the spacecraft, 
the United States was in this together. It was this devotion that 
united the American people like had never before, except for during war 
time. We were no longer Democrats or Republicans, we were Americans, 
cheering on and supporting the gallant men and women who were setting 
foot into this brave new world. No longer would bloodshed be required 
to bring this country together. The space race proved that Americans 
could come together not only in tragedies but triumphs; triumphs that 
would shape the world as we know it.
  Mr. Speaker, the space race as we knew it then will never return with 
the same vengeance. Technology progresses in different, and much 
faster, ways than it did during the height of the Cold War. But our 
space quest inspired millions of people around the globe, and that 
dream of future space exploration is still alive. I hope that while 
this governing body must face many serious and somber issues to keep 
this country safe and prosperous, that such a time will not fade from 
our memories, and that the American space dream will never fade away. 
Its unfortunate that we've seen the demise of NASA, a self-inflicted 
wound by our own Federal Government. In the interest of national 
security, we must continue to support the American space dream.
  And that's just the way it is.

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