Lamar Smith: “I thank the gentleman from Texas, the chairman of the Science, Space, and Technology Committee for yielding me time.…”

“I thank the gentleman from Texas, the chairman of the Science, Space, and Technology Committee for yielding me time. Madam Speaker, first I want to thank the gentleman from California, Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, for honoring both Neil Armstrong and NASA Deputy Administrator Hugh Dryden with this bill. Not many people know the relationship between these two men. Hugh Dryden was the visionary behind NASA's X-15 rocket plane and the Apollo program, and Neil Armstrong was the one who actually flew the spacecraft that Dryden envisioned. The X-15 rocket plane set many speed and altitude records in the early 1960s. Hugh Dryden was the engineer and program manager for that spacecraft, which Neil Armstrong flew seven times. While everyone knows that Neil Armstrong was the first person to set foot on the Moon, not many people know Hugh Dryden's role. The Soviets launched the first satellite, Sputnik, in 1957, and Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space in April 1961. President John F. Kennedy was looking for a way to demonstrate American ingenuity and technical superiority over the Soviet Union, so he convened the National Space Council and asked for their advice on the best way for America to respond to the Soviets' string of firsts in space exploration.…”