On the recordFebruary 9, 2016
Mr. President, I come to the floor to speak about the President's proposal with regard to our space budget, the civilian space program, and NASA. Of course we have many other space programs, primarily national security, but now there is a commercial space program. We are seeing the burgeoning commercial space industry in the NASA budget. We are amazed by the rockets which can take the first stage--instead of throwing it away when it lands in the Atlantic Ocean after a launch from Cape Canaveral--under powered flight, even without parachutes, can come back and land on a specific spot, just as SpaceX did in its first stage in a launch about 2 months ago. We are seeing commercial space. The fact that these things we carry around in our pockets that we loosely refer to as phones that know exactly where we are at any time is as a result of a constellation of satellites up there called GPS that triangulate and calculate exactly where we are. It is absolutely amazing to me that my latest gadgetry acquisition--a Fitbit--can so sensitively understand what my heart rate is at any moment, can measure distance, and gives me all kinds of information about the functioning of the human body. Well, this didn't just accidentally appear. Where in the world did a lot of this come from? It came from the space program. I wish to talk about that, but first I want to underscore something.…