[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 8]
[Senate]
[Pages 10964-10965]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               RECOGNIZING NASA'S LANGLEY RESEARCH CENTER

  Mr. KAINE. Mr. President, on behalf of myself and the senior Senator 
from Virginia, Mark Warner, we want to commemorate an important, early 
step in our Nation's emergence as a world leader in flight, space 
exploration, and atmospheric science.
  One hundred years ago today on July 17, 1917, NASA's Langley Research 
Center was founded in Hampton, VA. What was once a quiet expanse of 
farmland and marsh on a riverbank near the Chesapeake Bay has helped 
transform our Nation's transportation system and the world's 
understanding of our universe.

[[Page 10965]]

  That date in 1917 represents the beginning of a journey that would 
eventually take Americans to the moon and American technology to Mars 
and beyond.
  Born in the days of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, 
the precursor to NASA, Langley was the agency's first field center and 
our Nation's first civilian aeronautics laboratory.
  The groundbreaking and sky conquering research conducted during 
Langley's early days led to major advances in aeronautics and, in the 
years after World War I, helped our Nation cement its status as a 
pacesetter in flight research. Langley's important work also served as 
a foundation for America's burgeoning aviation industry.
  Langley won the first of its seven Collier trophies, awarded for the 
highest achievements in aeronautics or astronautics in our Nation, in 
1929. That trophy, won for development of cowling for radial air-cooled 
engines, honored a high level of technical excellence that Langley has 
maintained ever since.
  Over the decades, Langley has evolved into a research center 
supporting all of NASA's areas of emphasis, from human space 
exploration to Earth science and from aeronautics to technology 
development.
  NASA Langley's legacy of discovery and innovation is truly 
remarkable. Researchers at the center helped refine technologies and 
designs across all flight regimes--subsonic, transonic, supersonic, and 
hypersonic--revolutionizing the shape and performance of today's 
aircraft and spacecraft.
  This year, we all witnessed some of NASA Langley's contributions to 
the space race through the lens of the Oscar-nominated film, ``Hidden 
Figures.'' The film told the story of the many contributions of NASA 
Langley employees, especially African-American women, to the Mercury 7 
mission involving America's first astronauts.
  Beyond that, Neil Armstrong and other Apollo astronauts learned how 
to land on the moon by training at Langley's Lunar Landing Research 
Facility, now known as the Landing and Impact Research Facility.
  Langley led the first successful robotic landing on Mars with the 
Viking 1 mission, which gave humanity its first glimpse of the 
landscape of another world. The center's technical expertise in a field 
called Entry, Descent and Landing--the study of how a spacecraft can 
safely move through a planet's atmosphere and reach the surface--has 
been a key to every fully successful robotic landing on the surface of 
Mars.
  Those are just a few highlights among many, many accomplishments.
  Over the decades, NASA Langley has contributed technologies that have 
improved people's lives around the globe.
  For example, the grooved pavement that makes our highways safer 
evolved from research into runway surfaces at Langley. The winglets--
the upturned tips of wings seen on commercial aircraft--have saved fuel 
and reduced pollution for years. Their use is a result of research done 
by Richard Whitcomb, one of Langley's legendary aerodynamics experts.
  Based on what we have seen when visiting the center, we predict this 
legacy of excellence and innovation will continue--even accelerate--
over the next 100 years.
  We have been proud to work closely with the center on improving the 
safe use of unmanned aerial vehicles, better known as drones.
  We have also proudly partnered with the center's efforts on 
groundbreaking materials research, including the Advanced Composites 
Initiative, to work toward developing lighter, safer, and more fuel-
efficient vehicles for air and space.
  We have seen Langley's critical involvement in development of the 
Orion crew module, which was tested at Langley's Landing and Impact 
Research Facility to ensure that astronauts can safely splashdown in 
the ocean after future missions.
  Langley's test facilities are being used by companies who have 
partnered with NASA through its Commercial Crew Program. By working 
with Boeing and Space X, Langley is helping to boost our Nation's 
growing space industry.
  Other current projects include new aircraft designs intended to 
change the sonic boom to a sonic thud, opening the way for a 
revolutionary new generation of faster aircraft that will bring vast 
improvements for the traveling public.
  When it comes to serving the public's interest, Langley's work 
studying the Earth's atmosphere and how it absorbs and radiates heat 
tops the list. It is critical that NASA's work in earth science 
research continues. Wise policy decisions rely on high-quality data. 
Without solid data, we are essentially flying blind in the area of 
environmental policy.
  Coincidentally, the Hampton Roads area of Virginia--where Langley is 
located--is second only to New Orleans in susceptibility to sea-level 
rise. NASA Langley is one of many national assets--including military, 
industrial, and academic institutions--located there. It is an 
important region of our Nation and Langley's work to study earth's 
atmosphere will safeguard Hampton Roads, as well as our planet as a 
whole.
  When you consider exciting new capabilities offered by the center's 
Measurement Systems Laboratory, now under construction, and its 
Katherine G. Johnson Computational Research Facility, which is set to 
open later this year, it is clear that we can expect to see more 
improvements and discoveries from NASA Langley.
  As Virginia's Senators, we take great pride in the fact that NASA's 
original field lab--sometimes called the agency ``Mother Center''--
resides in the great Commonwealth of Virginia. We firmly believe that 
the boundary-pushing spirit displayed over the last 100 years 
represents some of the best traits of our national character: 
innovation, exploration, hard work, and the quest to make life better 
for us all.
  We look forward to seeing more amazing innovations from Langley and 
NASA as our Nation continues its push to solve the great problems of 
our age and as we extend humanity's reach ever deeper into the 
universe.
  NASA Langley is a remarkable place--and has been for 100 years. As a 
center for aerospace innovation, technological discovery, and 
scientific inquiry, Langley continues to lead the way.
  We should all cheer them on as they pass this big milestone and 
rocket ahead into a bold, new century.

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