Bill Nelson: “Secretary Rumsfeld, the recent Space Shuttle Columbia tragedy has the Nation reassessing the value of space exploration…”

We are on the same page, and NASA owns and operates that local public water system, so we have every reason to continue this investigation.

One of the reasons you and I were able to accomplish so much on this committee is both of us worked very hard to keep politics out of NASA and to focus on the core mission of exploration.

When we find those, by the way, not only looking for life, we start to understand their development, and we better understand who we are, why we are here, how we got here, and all of this evolution of the cosmos.

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