It should be a top priority to launch American astronauts on American rockets from America soil as soon as is safely possible.

Mr. Gerstenmaier, we are currently paying Russia $76 million for a Soyuz seat to the ISS, which has historically increased nine percent per year.

Congress and the American people deserve to have answers to the questions posed by ASAP.

I hope that we are doing everything that we can, as Members of Congress, to provide your agency, as well as others with the resources to counter this threat.

The Islamic Republic of Iran has continued to be a thorn in the side of the United States because of their failure to halt the expansion of their nuclear program as well as the support of terrorist groups like Hamas.

Great nations do great things. Everyone in today's hearing wants to ensure that the first flag flying on the surface of Mars is planted by an American astronaut.

The successful test launch of Orion demonstrates that we are on the right track for sending humans back to the Moon and Mars, within our lifetimes.

In the future, Orion and SLS will serve as the tip of the spear for our nation's space exploration program.

I want to congratulate Mr. Gerstenmaier and his entire team at NASA, as well as the teams at Lockheed Martin and United Launch Alliance for an outstanding test flight.

I certainly hope that this will someday be possible, but right now, space exploration requires government support.

The test last week of Orion was an important milestone in the future of America's space program.