Rob Bishop: “Tomorrow the President moves to Florida to salvage or to attempt to salvage a deteriorating political situation caused…”

“Tomorrow the President moves to Florida to salvage or to attempt to salvage a deteriorating political situation caused by accepting NASA Deputy Director Garver's poor decision to cancel Constellation. Constellation consists at least of two parts: the Orion capsule for the astronauts designed to be 10 times safer than the space shuttle, and the Aries rocket to send into space. But the alleged savings are more than offset by unintended consequences, because the industrial base that builds the rocket to put people towards the moon also builds the rockets to shoot down incoming missiles from North Korea, Iran, and other bad guys. And if you take the space component away, the defense side costs doubles, triples, maybe even more. And the Augustine report, which this administration is not following, noted this potential industrial-based problem, but NASA either refused to pay attention or chose to ignore the warning. Regardless, the solution to escalating defense costs and to maintaining the dominance in space will be dependent upon fully funding the Constellation program. And, Mr. President, anything less than that is totally unacceptable.”