As the STRATCOM commander, my concern... is what impact this decision might have on the industrial base as we look to the future.

The Bush administration failed to request the amounts it had originally projected to support the Vision for Exploration.

If Project Constellation is canceled, our Nation will not in the near future be able to travel beyond low-Earth orbit.

If Project Constellation is cancelled, our Nation's objective of sending an astronaut to Mars will be replaced with the fleeting hope that one day, some day, we will be able to explore the cosmos again.

Ares is the safest system. Nothing else comes close.

Let me remind you just why they cannot credibly pretend that an irreversible decision was made that they are simply implementing.

The Nation's space programs... are known to have been the most consistent and effective 'engine of excellence' in technology, innovations and science for the past 50 years.

This was originally an idea that was meant to be a one-time thing.

Space exploration has always been a bipartisan effort, and it should continue to be so.

we will have lost the many years required to re-create the equivalent of what will be discarded.

to abandon Ares I as a baseline vehicle for an alternative, without demonstrated capability nor proven superiority, or even equivalence, is unwise and probably not cost-effective.

I believe, for this Nation to not abandon all of the investments made in the Constellation program.