Joel Hefley: “today I would like to talk about a subject that has bothered me since I came to Congress in 1987, and that is the steady…”

“today I would like to talk about a subject that has bothered me since I came to Congress in 1987, and that is the steady erosion of America's eminence in space, and particularly the space launch industry. When I came to Congress, we had just lost the Challenger in 1986, and for all practical purposes, we were out of space for 2 years because we simply could not get things together to get back into our space program. In space, money matters. It costs about $9,000 to launch a pound into orbit aboard Europe's Ariane, the world's most successful commercial rocket. This figure outstrips our Titan III. Our Atlas and our Delta are competitive for now. Next year's launch of an improved Ariane could leave only Delta as a competitive rocket. Even these figures do not take into account entry into the commercial market of nonmarket economies such as China and Russia. These two are pursuing a pricing trend which may stabilize at $4,000 a pound, half of what anyone else charges. All of this has resulted in the loss of 70 percent of the world commercial launch market over the past few years. We used to have 100 percent. We have lost about 70 percent. We now have about 30 percent.”