Bill Nelson

I would say, in August.

If your question really is what is the future of the Marshall Space Program--the Space Center, I think it is very robust.

This is obviously a new space race, right? It is a renaissance, really, a new golden era for our space program.

Other countries can help by stop the putting up of junk.

We have taken diversity equity plan that Joe Biden announced. We have put together that plan.

We are going to launch Artemis this year.

I want to give where credit where credit is due because so much of what the chairman and the ranking member talked about in the course that we are on now with a dual track of not only government space but also commercial space is as a…

Absolutely, Congressman. The way that the competition bid went and was awarded to SpaceX, there is a provision for an extension, if you will, of that award which is Option B.

I think we are in a space race with China.

Participation in America's space program is not an entitlement. It is a privilege.

It is the top priority of NASA on infrastructure. We are afraid the bridge is going to fall in the water.

We are going to become a tenant for a lessee of commercial space stations in low earth orbit.

For the time being, Congressman, yes. You have a beautiful opportunity to have the Stennis Space Center evolve into a propulsion test complex that will be government and commercial multi-users.

We want to stop these contracts from growing and growing.

We ought to have a NASA program, a government program, but we also ought to have a commercial program, and it ought to be dual track.

America never wants to give up its DNA as explorers, adventurers, because always we've had a frontier.

We take the environment very seriously.

Yes, sir, and let me give you another example.

China clearly is in space for the long term, and we need to recognize that and respond accordingly.

Artemis is the program to go back to the Moon, but that's just--the goal is going to Mars.

Thank you for restoring it every time it got zeroed out in the past.

And I believe, Madam Chairwoman, that we are at a critical inflection point in our country, in our history, and in our future in restoring science to its proper place in informing our decisionmaking, and growing and diversifying our STEM…

I urge you to really, you know, give that program a healthy kick, because it's going to be essential to get the performance we need for a Mars mission on the schedule we hope to see it happen.

We've got to have a way to know in advance, well in advance, to save our astronauts so that they don't get fried.

The Gateway, in essence, is a small space station in lunar orbit that will do many things.