Joseph Cao: “Thank you very much, Pete. I know that the NASA program is extremely important to your district, and I know that it is…”

“Thank you very much, Pete. I know that the NASA program is extremely important to your district, and I know that it is very integral in providing good jobs to your people in your district. It is also the same with mine. I have a NASA facility plant in New Orleans East, a facility that is called Michoud. Earlier this year, President Obama released his 2011 budget. To my surprise and to the surprise of many other Members--I'm pretty sure you're included--the President recommended canceling NASA's Constellation human spaceflight program. During a time when our space shuttle program is phasing out, I am very concerned that this decision will leave our Nation with no means of transporting our astronauts to and from the international space station. It could set the U.S. space program back decades. Nearly 50 years ago, President John F. Kennedy showed remarkable vision when he directed NASA to launch the Apollo program to the Moon. America remains the only country in the world to have landed a person on the Moon and to have brought him back to Earth safely. We have achieved what people once thought to be impossible because we pushed ourselves and because we challenged our understanding of science and the universe. To this day, we still enjoy the countless benefits reaped from the first spaceflight.”