Jim Bridenstine

The American public is excited by the Administration's enthusiasm for space exploration.

The astronaut office at JSC will absolutely be involved, and their role is not going to change.

In order to get to the moon surface, we have to have new spacesuits.

But the key in order to get that of course is bipartisan consensus, and I understand that and I'm working toward that.

All of those capabilities collude to say that we have an opportunity here, should we choose to accept it to, no kidding, get to the moon in 2024.

This is about--this is really American leadership at its finest.

Without question. In fact, I would argue you cannot get to Mars unless you use the moon as a tool to get there.

We need to be much better at making determinations as to the cost of what we're going to build and the schedule of what we're going to build.

Not only is it exciting, it's necessary and noble, the work that's being done.

If there's a way to get a factor of 10 reduction in cost, I'm all for it, and I'd love to hear your ideas on it.

You're absolutely right; chemical rockets are expensive.

It's a reusable command and service module that is going to enable our astronauts and our robots and our landers and rovers.

A couple of weeks ago I was at a FIRST Robotics event, and there were thousands of kids there.

They're important. So, you know, we have the commercial lunar payload services underway.

SLS is the best--in fact it's the only option for EM-1.

The answer is the 2-week study is complete, and we looked at all of the commercial options, and we took nothing off the table.

My commitment, sir, is to follow the law, and we will continue doing that.

I can tell you everybody at Kennedy is extremely excited about getting the first launch of SLS by 2020.

We're going to be very safe. We're not going to do anything that brings undue safety.

We're making determinations right now ultimately how much of a green run we need to do based on the schedule that we are attempting to achieve.

I think our Earth science budget is very good.

My commitment is and will be to do everything possible to make NASA an apolitical, bipartisan organization.

NASA spends about $4.5 million annually invested in that program, and we also provide scientists and engineers as mentors for the high school students.

Oh, I will tell you it will not be successful if we're cutting other programs because we have to have bipartisan support.

That was a decision by the President of the United States announced by the Vice President of the United States.