On the recordSeptember 14, 2011
I wish to mark today, September 14 of 2011, as the day that NASA announced our vision for the future. Since the shuttle was retired earlier this year and we saw the last people go into space on an American flight, many of us have worried that there wasn't going to be another heavy launch vehicle that would take our astronauts to beyond low earth orbit. Today, after much study and a lot of going back and forth with NASA, I was encouraged to see the design approved by both NASA and the OMB, and I think it is going-- well, it will be the heaviest, biggest, strongest, most robust vehicle we have seen since we put men on the Moon. I was very concerned because of the long timeframe. Congress asked that this design be delivered by January of this year. We kept getting delays and delays and delays. Finally, Senator Bill Nelson and I just got frustrated about that timeline, so we had meetings. As recently as yesterday, I met with the director of OMB, Mr. Jack Lew, who did come to my office to meet with Senator Nelson and myself and General Bolden, who is the NASA Administrator, to get his commitment that we would be on a robust timeline and that it would be as much a priority of NASA to go beyond low earth orbit as the ferry to the space station would be for NASA. We got those assurances from Mr. Lew and the NASA Administrator.…
