Bill Nelson: “It is inexcusable that there is the lack of discipline so that the overruns to the tune of $5 billion have occurred on…”

“It is inexcusable that there is the lack of discipline so that the overruns to the tune of $5 billion have occurred on the space station. The fact is, however, that the space shuttle account has been starved 40 percent less over the last 10 years, and we cannot continue to rob from Peter to pay Paul in other parts of the program without endangering the safety of the program. We share the character of the American people, which is, by nature, we are explorers; we are adventurers. We never want to give that up because if we do, we are dead as a country; we are a second-rate country. We want to continue to explore into the unknown, but we have to do that with the utmost of safety. We all suffered through the tragic explosion of the 25th flight of the space shuttle, and from that we learned that we simply have to have the two-way communication and we have to have adequate resources. There is a plan over the next 10 years of upgrading the shuttle so that it provides reliable and safe access to space, and that is what I am advocating.”