Political Quotes

“Last week, SpaceShipOne completed its third successful flight into space. Burt Rutan, Brian Binnie, Michael Melvill, and their colleagues on the Tier One Project team deserve a place on the honor roll of our Nation's greatest explorers and innovators. Their bravery, ingenuity, and hard work have launched the age of commercial space flight. I also commend the men and women who had the vision to establish the Ansari X Prize. They all had dreams-- and they, with American spirit, captured their dream. America has always been on the cutting edge of space travel. We landed the first people on the moon, performed the first docking in space, made the first successful soft landings on Mars, and built the world's first fleet of reusable spacecraft. We have explored eight of the nine planets and returned a treasure trove of information about our moon, asteroids, and comets. As I speak, our spacecraft beam back scientific data from Mars, Saturn, and the orbit of our own planet. Soon, a spacecraft will begin to send data from Mercury and another will return from a close encounter with a comet. Through NASA's Discovery Program, universities and research labs work in partnership with Washington policy makers to return valuable information about asteroids and our sun. And last, but not least, we have spearheaded the 16-nation effort to build and crew the International Space Station. America will continue to push the outer reaches of space exploration.”