if we're not traveling beyond lower Earth orbit and we're not really exploring, then I think we're doing a disservice to the recommendations of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board.

If we give up that pursuit, we become a second-rate nation.

As I ask a series of questions of you all, I want you to be thinking about, at some point, I will want each of you to talk about examples of the tangible benefits from the space program, specifically the human space program, and the…

Space is something that contributes to that.

If the ISS were abandoned in 2016, what potential research do you think would be unrealized?

We do not fund our space program at the level that we should and therefore, it does not contribute to the national agenda as it could.

We refer to it in the scientific community as 'scientific genocide' on the part of NASA.

it will obviate the need to bring up fuel to keep boosting the Space Station, because it will have a continuous pulse.

The ISS is the only laboratory of its kind.

Ranking Member Vitter and distinguished members of the Subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to speak to you.

Well, Dr. Katz, I come back to you. Picking up on the idea that you talked about of the ISS as a National Laboratory.