Bill Nelson

So until you get Orion, your down-mass capability is only Soyuz?

When do you expect to make a decision on those changes?

So we really do not have a down-mass capability except what you can stick in the Soyuz.

There are a considerable number of folks, yours truly included, that feel like that that is not a realistic flight schedule.

It was Senator Hutchison who, about 5 years ago, in the NASA authorization bill had first designated the Space Station as a National Laboratory.

But that was not what the legislation said. The legislation said that $150 million was funding for COTS-D.

I want to ask you a question specifically about the workforce at the Kennedy Space Center.

In last year's authorization bill, there was guidance to NASA about COTS-D Space Act agreements to develop a U.S. commercial alternative to Soyuz.

Will you notify us immediately if your assessment of probability changes?

But you would never sacrifice any question of safety to get those six off.

It is extraordinary that you can take humans and machines and put them together and make them do wondrous things.

We had a unique opportunity... to craft a COTS-D plan that would have funded the program at the level that the folks needed.

So the start date is not a problem. It is entirely dependent upon the length of time that the Shuttle flies.

I am dismayed and frustrated by the proposed out-year budget levels, particularly in the Exploration account.

What we are going to increasingly do with this new administration is hold NASA accountable.

I think that you are going to see our recommendations to get to those problems, that NASA take more of the lead.

Is that IOC date still based on that confidence level?

When can we expect that report?

It has been reported in the press that you are negotiating a price of $51 million per seat?

I agree. I would echo what Senator Vitter said about the out-years numbers, and I have shared my dissatisfaction with Dr. Orzag and Dr. Holdren about that.

It astounds me that the U.S. will lose its ability to put astronauts into space just as we are completing the International Space Station.

Last year then Senator Obama noted that the Bush Administration had underfunded NASA.

In last year's authorization bill, we emphasized the importance of the ISS as a National Laboratory.

Sometimes NASA does not want itself to be helped. We have got to get our act together.

We cannot afford, as a country, to surrender our long-held leadership in space exploration.