On the recordJune 3, 2004
In the 1950s, it was the Russians that first went into outer space with Sputnik. That launched a new generation of young people to go into engineering, science, and technology. Those folks were the backbone of what was the Gemini and the Apollo programs. It was a great part of our history as we went to the Moon and did some wonderful things in outer space. As the gentleman well knows, in recent times we have starved our science budget. We are not doing as good a job as we should be doing in space exploration, which helped us bring along the personal computer, the types of equipment that we see in our cars that can tell us where we are at any moment, all of these amazing technologies that we just count on. The gentleman is correct, if we do not continue this investment, we are going to be behind in the world, and other nations are going to be ahead of us.
Source
govinfo.gov
