Bill Nelson: “as we move more to a global economy, I would note that the United States, over the course of time, has been a driver of…”

“as we move more to a global economy, I would note that the United States, over the course of time, has been a driver of economic prosperity because of the ingenuity of our people, because of the technological prowess we have, and because of the edge we have over many other countries in our competitiveness with regard to computers. I think back to when we were in the great space race, after the Soviets had surprised us by launching the first satellite Sputnik--we finally got Explorer up--and that shook the Nation to its core. Then suddenly, the Soviets surprised us again by getting into orbit with a human, Yuri Gagarin, before we could ever get off the pad with Alan Shepard trying to go into suborbit because we did not have a rocket that was strong enough to get that Mercury capsule up into orbit. So we went into suborbit with two flights before, then 10 months after, Gagarin. We finally launched John Glenn--a former Member of this body--into orbit aboard an Atlas rocket, and the space race was on. That was when there was that very significant leadership decision made by President Kennedy who said: We are going to the Moon and back in the decade; and America put its efforts behind its will to succeed, and we developed the technology which led us to get there and back safely before the Soviets did.”