Sen. Bill Nelson Holds a Hearing On Space Exploration

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Sen. Bill Nelson Holds a Hearing On Space Exploration

SENATE COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE AND TRANSPORTATION, SUBCOMMITTEE ON SPACE, AERONAUTICS, AND RELATED SCIENCES HOLDS A HEARING ON SPACE EXPLORATION

MAY 7, 2008

SPEAKERS: SEN. BILL NELSON, D-FLA. CHAIRMAN SEN. JOHN KERRY, D-MASS. SEN. BYRON L. DORGAN SEN. MARK PRYOR, D-ARK. SEN. DANIEL K. INOUYE, D-HAWAII EX OFFICIO

SEN. KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON, R-TEXAS RANKING MEMBER SEN. JOHN E. SUNUNU, R-N.H. SEN. TED STEVENS, R-ALASKA EX OFFICIO

WITNESSES: EUGENE F. KRANZ, ADVISORY BOARD MEMBER, COALITION FOR SPACE EXPLORATION

JOAN JOHNSON-FREESE, CHAIRMAN, NATIONAL SECURITY DECISION MAKING DEPARTMENT, U.S. NAVAL WAR COLLEGE

FREDERICK A. TARANTINO, PRESIDENT, UNIVERSITIES SPACE RESEARCH ASSOCIATION

MAJOR GENERAL ROBERT S. DICKMAN (USAF, RET.), EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF AERONAUTICS AND ASTRONAUTICS

GEORGE T. WHITESIDES, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NATIONAL SPACE SOCIETY

[*] NELSON: Good morning, everybody.

And we are delighted to have a very distinguished panel, as we discuss NASA and where it should be going, that ultimately we will try to etch into law through the NASA authorization legislation.

And so the purpose of this hearing is to get the ideas of this distinguished panel, as we then bring to a conclusion the drafting of this legislation. And then as we go into what is called the markup, which is the discussing, amending and passing of a bill in committee, and then sending it on, ready for action on the floor.

It's my hope that we can get this going pretty soon, so that with all the other distractions of this year, not the least of which is all of the funding bills, the appropriations bills that we're going to have to do and worry about, particularly in the political crucible of a presidential election year, trying to get all of these things done.

It's my hope that we can go and get the NASA authorization bill moving on a fairly rapid track.

NASA is in trouble. This little agency has been asked to do too much with too little. And that is the problem. And it's my hope that within the last eight months or so of the Bush administration, that we can get the president and the vice president, who set the vision for the future of NASA, to adequately fund it.

And then, of course -- and how many months have we got to go; May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December; eight months -- that then in eight months we can convince the new president to properly fund all that NASA is being asked to do. And it's a lot.

We have payloads that have to be launched by the space shuttle in order to complete the space station. Then it must be equipped. It must have supplies. And it must have those scientific experiments.

And one of those scientific experiments is still sitting on the ground, already paid for -- $1.5 billion -- the alphamagnetic spectrometer. Fifty universities and 25 nations have participated in the creation and building of this scientific experiment, which will go on board the space station, but is configured to ride to the space station aboard the space shuttle.

And it, by the way, is a complementary experiment to the one that is going to be turned on in Geneva, Switzerland, in the next couple of months, which is this accelerator that is about 15 miles in circumference and is going to smash two protons together in order for us to try to understand all of these subatomic particles.

And this scientific experiment for the space station is a complement to that, because it's going to collect those subatomic particles out there in space, called cosmic rays.

And so you see, NASA at this point can't even get around to fly to the space station the alphamagnetic spectrometer.

And then, if that's not enough, NASA says it's going to have to shut down the space shuttle so it can use its...

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