Political Quotes

“I rise to introduce the Millennium National Commission on Space Act. The year 1999 proved to be very difficult for NASA. The Commerce Committee reviewed reports on such incidents as: Workers searching for misplaced Space Station tanks in a landfill; Loose pins in the Shuttle's main engine; Failure to make English-metric conversions causing the failure of a $125 million mission to Mars; Two-time use of 'rejected' seals on Shuttle's turbopumps; $1 billion of cost overruns on the prime contract for the Space Station with calls from the Inspector General at NASA for improvement in the agency's oversight; Workers damaging the main antennae on the Shuttle for communication between mission control and the orbiting Shuttle; Urgent repair mission to the Hubble telescope; Approximately $1 billion invested in an experimental vehicle and currently no firm plans for its first flight, if it flies at all; and The lack of long-term planning for the Space Station, an issue on which the Science, Technology, and Space Subcommittee of the Commerce Committee has repeatedly questioned NASA. It is the last of these items, the lack of long-term planning for the Space Station and the lack of long-term planning of NASA and the civilian space program, that is of a concern to me. I feel that the civilian space program is in need of some guidance.”