David Weldon: “I rise tonight to speak out and to salute the people at Kennedy Space Center as well as the officials in NASA and those…”

“I rise tonight to speak out and to salute the people at Kennedy Space Center as well as the officials in NASA and those at the other centers as well as our astronauts in particular and additionally our cosmonauts on the tremendously successful recent Mir rendezvous mission. I went down, Mr. Speaker, to see the shuttle take off for that particular flight. Unfortunately we got canceled because of rain the few days I was down there and I had to return back here because the House went back in session. But then we had a flawless liftoff and the mission, I can only say, was a tremendous success. Not only did the commander of the mission, Hoot Gibson, do a fabulous job, but so did the entire crew. It was a historic mission. It was the 100th space flight for the United States, and it was the first rendezvous mission involving our space shuttle, clearly demonstrating the technology that is needed for our space shuttle not only to continue to go up and link up with the Mir space station but in a few years to be able to go up and link up with our future space station. I think it is a tremendous testimonial to the efforts of all the workers there at Kennedy Space Center as well as at Johnson Space Center and the other NASA centers that this mission went off flawlessly. I was delighted to be able to be there to see the shuttle land and to meet with some of the Russian officials.”