Bill Nelson

To eliminate the gap or significantly reduce it would have a significant negative impact on the long-term exploration program.

I think, Mr. Chairman, I better provide that for the record.

As your committee discussed these intangible benefits, no doubt you noted also some of the tangible benefits.

I have been amazed as I have watched this entire space team knowing that the Space Shuttle is likely to come to an end.

I will not ascribe that to the President.

The goal that the Committee has set is to get out beyond low-Earth orbit, that NASA ought to be exploring the heavens with the human space program.

It is clear to me that this Nation could afford a strong human spaceflight program. It is simply a question of priority.

Did you have in your discussions any idea of the time in mind as to when we should try to target for on-orbit refueling?

The Ares V, of course, is part of the current Program of Record, although, unfortunately, it has not been able to be funded because to keep the budget for the Ares I and the Orion unchanged, we have been delayed in starting the Ares V and…

Stability of funding would have an enormously positive impact.

I think they are doing everything right. The problem is they are going to run off of a budget cliff 12 months from now.

Why would we spend $100 billion building the Space Station and then put it in the Pacific?

The work that your panel has done is in preparation for the President making a decision.

There is only one person that can lead America's human spaceflight program, and that is the President.

As you give us this report, Mr. Augustine, I think it is going to become increasingly apparent that the moment of truth for the future of NASA's human spaceflight is here.

Thank you for this unpaid service, enormous public service that you have rendered.

We really want to peel back the onion and get into a lot of the specifics of the extraordinary work that you have done, Mr. Augustine.

Thank you for the public service that you have rendered to this country over a lifetime that you have in Government and in the private sector.

This is an exceptionally important topic, and I think that buzzer might tell us that a vote is starting.

OK. The record will stay open for a couple of days.

Of course, you remember that the President said in the campaign, he wanted to be on the Moon by 2020.

Which, by the way, parenthetically, I assume will be a theme that will run throughout your report once it is produced publicly.

The human spaceflight program is so large that when it has problems, it tends to cannibalize the science program.

Yes, what staff is pointing out, it would be the best of all worlds.

So that would still get you out on things like asteroids or one of the Martian moons utilizing an EELV?