[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 40, Number 3 (Monday, January 19, 2004)]
[Pages 66-68]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration

January 14, 2004

    Thanks for the warm welcome. I'm honored to be with the men and 
women of NASA. I thank those of you who have come in person. I welcome 
those who are listening by video. This agency and the dedicated 
professionals who serve it have always reflected the finest values of 
our country, daring, discipline, ingenuity, and unity in the pursuit of 
great goals.
    America is proud of our space program. The risktakers and 
visionaries of this agency have expanded human knowledge, have 
revolutionized our understanding of the universe, and produced 
technological advances that have benefited all of humanity.
    Inspired by all that has come before and guided by clear objectives, 
today we set a new course for America's space program. We will give NASA 
a new focus and vision for future exploration. We will build new ships 
to carry man forward into the universe, to gain a new foothold on the 
moon, and to prepare for new journeys to worlds beyond our own.
    I am comfortable in delegating these new goals to NASA, under the 
leadership of Sean O'Keefe. He's doing an excellent job. I appreciate 
Commander Mike Foale's introduction. I'm sorry I couldn't shake his 
hand. [Laughter] Perhaps, Commissioner, you'll bring him by--
Administrator, you'll bring him by to the Oval Office when he returns, 
so I can thank him in person.
    I also know he is in space with his colleague, Alexander Kaleri, who 
happens to be a Russian cosmonaut. I appreciate the joint efforts of the 
Russians with our country to explore. I want to thank the astronauts who 
are with us, the courageous spacial entrepreneurs who set such a 
wonderful example for the young of our country.
    And we've got some veterans with us today. I appreciate the 
astronauts of yesterday who are with us as well, who inspired the 
astronauts of today to serve our country.
    I appreciate so very much the Members of Congress being here. Tom 
DeLay is here, leading a House delegation. Senator Nelson is here from 
the Senate. I am honored that you all have come. I appreciate you're 
interested in the subject. [Laughter] It is a subject that's important 
to this administration. It's a subject that's mighty important to the 
country and to the world.
    Two centuries ago, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark left St. Louis 
to explore the new lands acquired in the Louisiana Purchase. They made 
that journey in the spirit of discovery, to learn the potential of vast 
new territory and to chart a way for others to follow. America has 
ventured forth into space for the same reasons. We have undertaken space 
travel because the desire to explore and understand is part of our 
character.
    And that quest has brought tangible benefits that improve our lives 
in countless ways. The exploration of space has led to advances in 
weather forecasting, in communications, in computing, search and rescue 
technology, robotics, and electronics. Our investment in space 
exploration helped to create our satellite telecommunications network 
and the Global Positioning System. Medical technologies that help 
prolong life, such as the imaging processing used in CAT scanners and 
MRI machines, trace their origins to technology engineered for the use 
in space.
    Our current programs and vehicles for exploring space have brought 
us far, and they have served us well. The space shuttle has flown more 
than a hundred missions. It has been used to conduct important research 
and to increase the sum of human knowledge. Shuttle crews and the 
scientists and engineers who support them have helped build the 
International Space Station.
    Telescopes, including those in space, have revealed more than 100 
planets in the last decade alone. Probes have shown us stunning images 
of the rings of Saturn and the outer planets of our solar system. 
Robotic explorers have found evidence of water, a key ingredient for 
life, on Mars and on the moons of Jupiter. At this very hour, the Mars 
Exploration Rover Spirit is searching for evidence of life beyond the 
Earth.
    Yet for all these successes, much remains for us to explore and to 
learn. In the past 30 years, no human being has set foot on another 
world or ventured farther upward

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into space than 386 miles, roughly the distance from Washington, DC, to 
Boston, Massachusetts. America has not developed a new vehicle to 
advance human exploration in space in nearly a quarter-century. It is 
time for America to take the next steps.
    Today I announce a new plan to explore space and extend a human 
presence across our solar system. We will begin the effort quickly, 
using existing programs and personnel. We'll make steady progress, one 
mission, one voyage, one landing at a time.
    Our first goal is to complete the International Space Station by 
2010. We will finish what we have started. We will meet our obligations 
to our 15 international partners on this project. We will focus our 
future research aboard the station on the long-term effects of space 
travel on human biology. The environment of space is hostile to human 
beings. Radiation and weightlessness pose dangers to human health, and 
we have much to learn about their long-term effects before human crews 
can venture through the vast voids of space for months at a time. 
Research onboard the station and here on Earth will help us better 
understand and overcome the obstacles that limit exploration. Through 
these efforts, we will develop the skills and techniques necessary to 
sustain further space exploration.
    To meet this goal, we will return the space shuttle to flight as 
soon as possible, consistent with safety concerns and the 
recommendations of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board. The 
shuttle's chief purpose over the next several years will be to help 
finish assembly of the International Space Station. In 2010, the space 
shuttle, after nearly 30 years of duty, will be retired from service.
    Our second goal is to develop and test a new spacecraft, the crew 
exploration vehicle, by 2008 and to conduct the first manned mission no 
later than 2014. The crew exploration vehicle will be capable of 
ferrying astronauts and scientists to the space station after the 
shuttle is retired. But the main purpose of this spacecraft will be to 
carry astronauts beyond our orbit to other worlds. This will be the 
first spacecraft of its kind since the Apollo Command Module.
    Our third goal is to return to the moon by 2020, as the launching 
point for missions beyond. Beginning no later than 2008, we will send a 
series of robotic missions to the lunar surface to research and prepare 
for future human exploration. Using the crew exploration vehicle, we 
will undertake extended human missions to the moon as early as 2015, 
with the goal of living and working there for increasingly extended 
periods of time. Eugene Cernan, who is with us today, the last man to 
set foot on the lunar surface, said this as he left, ``We leave as we 
came, and God willing as we shall return, with peace and hope for all 
mankind.'' America will make those words come true.
    Returning to the moon is an important step for our space program. 
Establishing an extended human presence on the moon could vastly reduce 
the costs of further space exploration, making possible ever more 
ambitious missions. Lifting heavy spacecraft and fuel out of the Earth's 
gravity is expensive. Spacecraft assembled and provisioned on the moon 
could escape its far lower gravity using far less energy, and thus, far 
less cost. Also, the moon is home to abundant resources. Its soil 
contains raw materials that might be harvested and processed into rocket 
fuel or breathable air. We can use our time on the moon to develop and 
test new approaches and technologies and systems that will allow us to 
function in other, more challenging environments. The moon is a logical 
step toward further progress and achievement.
    With the experience and knowledge gained on the moon, we will then 
be ready to take the next steps of space exploration, human missions to 
Mars and to worlds beyond. Robotic missions will serve as trailblazers, 
the advanced guard to the unknown. Probes, landers, and other vehicles 
of this kind continue to prove their worth, sending spectacular images 
and vast amounts of data back to Earth. Yet the human thirst for 
knowledge ultimately cannot be satisfied by even the most vivid pictures 
or the most detailed measurements. We need to see and examine and touch 
for ourselves. And only human beings are capable of adapting to the 
inevitable uncertainties posed by space travel.
    As our knowledge improves, we'll develop new power generation 
propulsion, life support, and other systems that can support

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more distant travels. We do not know where this journey will end, yet we 
know this: Human beings are headed into the cosmos.
    And along this journey, we'll make many technological breakthroughs. 
We don't know yet what those breakthroughs will be, but we can be 
certain they'll come and that our efforts will be repaid many times 
over. We may discover resources on the moon or Mars that will boggle the 
imagination, that will test our limits to dream. And the fascination 
generated by further exploration will inspire our young people to study 
math and science and engineering and create a new generation of 
innovators and pioneers.
    This will be a great and unifying mission for NASA, and we know that 
you'll achieve it. I have directed Administrator O'Keefe to review all 
of NASA's current spaceflight and exploration activities and direct them 
toward the goals I have outlined. I will also form a commission of 
private and public sector experts to advise on implementing the vision 
that I've outlined today. This commission will report to me within 4 
months of its first meeting. I'm today naming former Secretary of the 
Air Force Pete Aldridge to be the chair of the commission. Thank you for 
being here today, Pete. He has tremendous experience in the Department 
of Defense and the aerospace industry. He is going to begin this 
important work right away.
    We'll invite other nations to share the challenges and opportunities 
of this new era of discovery. The vision I outline today is a journey, 
not a race, and I call on other nations to join us on this journey, in a 
spirit of cooperation and friendship.
    Achieving these goals requires a long-term commitment. NASA's 
current 5-year budget is $86 billion. Most of the funding we need for 
the new endeavors will come from reallocating $11 billion within that 
budget. We need some new resources, however. I will call upon Congress 
to increase NASA's budget by roughly a billion dollars, spread out over 
the next 5 years. This increase, along with refocusing of our space 
agency, is a solid beginning to meet the challenges and the goals that 
we set today. It's only a beginning. Future funding decisions will be 
guided by the progress we make in achieving these goals.
    We begin this venture knowing that space travel brings great risks. 
The loss of the Space Shuttle Columbia was less than one year ago. Since 
the beginning of our space program, America has lost 23 astronauts and 
one astronaut from an allied nation, men and women who believed in their 
mission and accepted the dangers. As one family member said, ``The 
legacy of Columbia must carry on--for the benefit of our children and 
yours.'' Columbia's crew did not turn away from the challenge, and 
neither will we.
    Mankind is drawn to the heavens for the same reason we were once 
drawn into unknown lands and across the open sea. We choose to explore 
space because doing so improves our lives and lifts our national spirit. 
So let us continue the journey.
    May God bless.

Note: The President spoke at 3:25 p.m. In his remarks, he referred to C. 
Michael Foale, commander, and Alexander Kaleri, flight engineer, 
Expedition 8, International Space Station; and Senator Bill Nelson of 
Florida.