Bill Nelson

Do you have to have all the $6 billion to develop it?

How can we, the taxpayers, be guaranteed that the seats are going to be purchased at a fair market price?

I believe we can find a more measured and reasoned approach that ensures the best use of investments we have already made.

I have yet to see any convincing evidence that this proposal is viable, or that it will lead to anything other than the ruin of our proud space program.

If you were told, 'Go,' how long would it take you to do a CEV?

But, I don't want to get this into a situation where we've just got extra layers of bureaucracy to go through just to get a crew up to the International Space Station.

Space transportation is inherently risky.

Is that going to happen with the rest of these folks?

I think I'll stop there, probably having shot myself in the foot more times than I want to count.

How would you suggest for us to determine whether or not $6 billion is too much, too little, or just right, as we start the budgetary process?

I passed the first Commercial Space Act, back in the 1980s, and I never intended for the FAA to be getting into this.

I think that's a capability that we should continue to build on, not only just to provide cargo, but to provide other support for the Station and other markets that come along.

But, you felt fairly confident in getting cargo up on commercial vehicles.

Mr. Gass, what would happen if the Congress decided, since the Congress controls the purse strings, that we wanted to take the $6 billion projected by the President over the next 5 years, and use that, not for human certification of the…

Unless we make every effort to close the gap in U.S. human spaceflight, we will have no choice but to face the reality that we will be totally dependent on Russia for access to space.

I think, prematurely stop the Constellation Program and not move forward very firmly on keeping the Space Station... is not good, common sense.

I would like to continue the Shuttles and am certainly looking for a way to achieve that.

Relying on Russia to fill the gap is equally, in my opinion, unreliable and unsupportable.

I hope, Mr. Chairman, that you and I will be able to begin to work on a plan that is both supportive of commercial.

Let me ask Ms. Shotwell and Mr. Culbertson--we're going to try to make some decisions on our authorization and work with the appropriators on which way we're going.

Safety is, and always will be, NASA's first core value

It is imperative that this Congress should carefully consider and understand all of the potential ramifications of the proposed changes

If it were 5, that was the original schedule for the Ares I; it was going to be in 2016.

I think this gap is too important to rely on just commercial and not continue our capabilities.

At least three billion dollars per year must be added to NASA's appropriation to accomplish the mission