Bill Nelson

We are going to divide 1 minute; 15 seconds here, 15 seconds there, and 30 seconds for Senator Shelby. I will just say this is the BP fine money to come back and restore the Gulf of Mexico and people who earn their living from the gulf.

We would like to thank Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL) for introducing S. 260 and the 50 Senators who have co-sponsored this important legislation to repeal the SBP-DIC offset.

Thank you, Senator Bill Nelson for introducing S. 260 and the 50 Senators who have co-sponsored this important repeal legislation.

If we create a suite of launch vehicles, with variable launch capability, then needs at any one moment will determine the destination.

The long-term goal for our human space program is Mars.

Mars (life). Mars Moons (monitor mars). Lunar Poles (frozen water repository).

We are singing from the same hymn book.

Science literacy is going to be our future, and somehow we need to translate that into overcoming these obstacles.

Well, of course, you are not only preaching to the choir, you are preaching to the preachers.

I think the long and short of it, of what we are saying up here, is that we want to see that Orion is getting sufficiently funded so that it is ready by the time the big rocket is ready, and not vice versa.

As you are doing your investigation, you might also find out why only 1 percent of NASA laptops and portable devices are encrypted versus a Government average of 54 percent?

We have spent a great deal of time on this in the Intelligence Committee, and of course, the attacks are attempted every day.

And that is why is NASA so far behind the rest of the Government in securing the data on its portable devices?

Well, I just want to make clear for the record, for those elsewhere in the country that are questioning the construction projects at the Kennedy Space Center, those other areas of the country that are building rockets, that you can't…

Well, remember also in the context of where we come today, the House of Representatives had also basically eliminated the James Webb Space Telescope.

Remember, it was the House of Representatives that had whacked the President's request of $800 million down to $300 million.

We, as Americans, have always had a frontier. We have always been pressing that frontier, and as a result, we have always been explorers and adventurers.

And you have just done it so eloquently, so incisively, and I couldn't help but think as you were speaking to be reminded of the event that we just had down at the Cape on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of John Glenn's historic space…

No one is as concerned about cybersecurity and IT security as I.

But in the way that it is put about in the budgeting, it gets confused.

Now something just doesn't seem right there. Why the delay of 4 years?

I believe that a nation such as ours, that once led pioneered space exploration, and reaped the economic and cultural rewards of technological advancement, cannot and should not voluntarily cede that role to other nations.

But you can assure this committee that were the algorithms to get into some third party's hands that wanted to do something bad, that they couldn't because you encrypt any of the commands that go to the station?

We are on track to develop a flexible deep space launch system that will ultimately be the most capable in history.

And I will tell you we both have a healthy degree of skepticism about OMB because OMB has thought that it has been running the space program for over the last decade.