Bill Nelson: “We owe it to the American public that we maximize the chances of that not happening again.”

We cannot identify every object. However, NEO Surveyor will be able to identify 90 percent of all the potential asteroids that are greater than 140 meters wide within the 10 years of the launch.

That's like eating our seed corn. We're not going to have anything to plant next year in the quest of trying to understand what is part of the statutes for NASA, which is to search for life, and therefore to understand who we are, what we…

It is the research and development that allows this country to move forward.

It is critical that NASA remain focused on its core mission.