Political Quotes

“I rise today to recognize NASA's STS-135 mission. As the Presiding Officer knows, at approximately 11:30 a.m. tomorrow, Space Shuttle Atlantis is scheduled to lift off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida with a crew of four on board. The 12-day mission will deliver supplies, logistics, and spare parts to the International Space Station. This will be the final mission of the space shuttle era that began just over 30 years ago. A Senator from Colorado may not seem like the most likely person to come to the floor today to speak about the space shuttle, but NASA and space exploration actually have quite a bit to do with Colorado, and it is something I care deeply about. Colorado has one of the three top aerospace economies in the country, with a hand in every aspect of space--government, commercial and academic, civil and military. We helped develop the space shuttle and many of the missions that flew on it, and we are playing a major role in the development of the shuttle's successors. NASA has been a source of pride for all Americans from its very beginnings. We have cheered their triumphs and suffered with them during their tragedies. All the while, we have been inspired by their mission of exploration. The shuttle era is no exception. Ever since the first launch in April of 1981, the names of the space shuttles--the Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour--have become familiar to even casual observers.…”