Jerry Brown: “Mr. Speaker, I should point out that approximately 41 years ago we entered into a new age, the space age, with the…”

“Mr. Speaker, I should point out that approximately 41 years ago we entered into a new age, the space age, with the launch of Sputnik which scared the daylights out of a lot of people around the world, including here in the United States, and stimulated our own efforts to move into the new space age. That age has proceeded more rapidly than many of us had ever assumed that it might and less rapidly than some had hoped. It is 41 years old approximately. It is notable that today commercial space revenues have exceeded the amount of money which the governments of the world spend on space. This is a rather remarkable feature in itself, but I think we are just looking at the beginning of a vast increase in commercial space activities. Of course that is what this bill is intended to address. It is not a revolutionary bill. I sometimes criticize legislation for not going as far as it should. I personally would like to have seen this bill go much further into new areas of space commercialization, new legislative structures and so forth. I recognize, however, the tremendous amount of work which has gone into bringing us this piece of legislation, and I am not going to be critical of the fact that the bill does not reach as far as I would like.”