President Bush Delivers Remarks On U.S. Space Policy

January 14, 2004 
Speaker: George W. Bush, President Of The United States 
BUSH: Thanks for the warm welcome. I'm honored to be with the men and women of
NASA. Want to thank those of you have come in person. I welcome those who are
listening by video. 
This agency and the dedicated professionals who serve it have always reflected the finest
values of our country: daring, discipline, ingenuity and unity in the pursuit of great goals. 
America is proud of our space program. The risk-takers and visionaries of this agency
have expanded human knowledge, have revolutionized our understanding of the universe
and produced technological advances that have benefited all of humanity. 
Inspired by all that has come before, and guided by clear objectives, today we set a new
course for America's space program. We will give NASA a new focus and vision for
future exploration. We will build new ships to carry man forward into the universe, to
gain a new foothold on the moon and to prepare for new journeys to the worlds beyond
our own. 
I am comfortable in delegating these new goals to NASA under the leadership of Sean
O'Keefe. He's doing an excellent job. 
(APPLAUSE) 
I appreciate Commander Mike Foale's introduction. I'm sorry I couldn't shake his hand. 
(APPLAUSE) 
BUSH: Perhaps, Commissioner, you'll bring him by -- Administrator, you'll bring him by
the Oval Office when he returns so I can thank him in person.  I also know he is in space with his colleague, Alexander Kaleri, who happens to be a
Russian, a cosmonaut. I appreciate the joint efforts of the Russians with our country to
explore. 
I want to thank the astronauts who are with us, the courageous special entrepreneurs who
set such a wonderful example for the young of our country. 
(APPLAUSE) 
And we got some veterans with us today. I appreciate the astronauts of yesterday who are
with us as well, who inspired the astronauts of today to serve our country. 
I appreciate so very much the members of Congress being here. Tom Delay is here,
leading a House delegation. Senator Nelson is here from the Senate. 
I am honored that you all have come. I appreciate your interest in this subject. It is a
subject that is... 
(LAUGHTER) 
It's a subject that's important to this administration. It's a subject that's mighty important
to the country and to the world. 
Two centuries ago, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark left St. Louis to explore the
new lands acquired in the Louisiana Purchase. They made that journey in the spirit of
discovery to learn the potential of the vast new territory and to chart the way for others to
follow. 
America has ventured forth into space for the same reasons. We've undertaken space
travel because the desire to explore and understand is part of our character. And that
quest has brought tangible benefits that improve our lives in countless ways. 
The exploration of space has led to advances in weather forecasting, in communications,
in computing, search and rescue technology, robotics and electronics.
Our investment in space exploration helped to create our satellite telecommunications
network and the Global Positioning System. 
Medical technologies that help prolong life, such as the imaging processing used in CAT
scanners and MRI machines, trace their origins to technology engineered for the use in
space. 
Our current programs and vehicles for exploring space have brought us far, and they have
served us well.  The space shuttle has flown more than a 100 missions. It has been used to conduct
important research and to increase the sum of human knowledge. 
Shuttle crews and the scientists and engineers who support them have helped build the
International Space Station. 
Telescopes, including those in space, have revealed more than 100 planets in the last
decade alone. Probes have shown us stunning images of the rings of Saturn and the outer
planets of our solar system. Robotic explorers have found evidence of water, a key
ingredient for life on Mars and on the moons of Jupiter. 
At this very hour, the Mars exploration rover Spirit is searching for evidence of life
beyond the Earth. 
Yet for all these successes, much remains for us to explore and to learn. 
In the past 30 years, no human being has set foot on another world or ventured farther up
into space than 386 miles, roughly the distance from Washington, D.C., to Boston,
Massachusetts. 
America has not developed a new vehicle to advance human exploration in space in
nearly a quarter century. 
It is time for America to take the next steps. 
Today I announce a new plan to explore space and extend a human presence across our
solar system. We will begin the effort quickly, using existing programs and personnel.
We'll make steady progress, one mission, one voyage, one landing at a time. 
Our first goal is to complete the International Space Station by 2010. We will finish what
we have started. We will meet our obligations to our 15 international partners on this
project. 
We will focus our future research aboard this station on the long-term effects of space
travel on human biology. The environment of space is hostile to human beings. Radiation
and weightlessness pose dangers to human health. And we have much to learn about their
long-term effects before human crews can venture through the vast voids of space for
months at a time. 
Research on board the station and here on Earth will help us better understand and
overcome the obstacles that limit exploration. Through these efforts, we will develop the
skills and techniques necessary to sustain further space exploration. 
To meet this goal, we will return the space shuttle to flight as soon as possible, consistent
with safety concerns and the recommendations of the Columbia Accident Investigation
Board.  The shuttle's chief purpose over the next several years will be to help finish assembly of
the International Space Station. In 2010, the space shuttle, after nearly 30 years of duty,
will be retired from service. 
Our second goal is to develop and test a new spacecraft, the crew exploration vehicle, by
2008, and to conduct the first manned mission no later than 2014. 
The crew exploration vehicle will be capable of ferrying astronauts and scientists to the
space station after the shuttle is retired. But the main purpose of this spacecraft will be to
carry astronauts beyond our orbit to other worlds. This will be the first spacecraft of its
kind since the Apollo command module. 
Our third goal is to return to the moon by 2020, as the launching point for missions
beyond. 
Beginning no later than 2008, we will send a series of robotic missions to the lunar
surface to research and prepare for future human exploration. 
Using the crew exploration vehicle, we will undertake extended human missions to the
moon as early as 2015, with the goal of living and working there for increasingly
extended periods of time. 
Eugene Cernan, who is with us today, the last man to set foot on the lunar surface. He
said this as he left: "We leave as we came and, god willing, as we shall return, with
peace, and hope for all mankind." 
America will make those words come true. 
(APPLAUSE) 
Returning to the moon is an important step for our space program. Establishing an
extended human presence on the moon could vastly reduce the cost of further space
exploration, making possible ever more ambitious missions. 
Lifting heavy spacecraft and fuel out of the Earth's gravity is expensive. 
Spacecraft assembled and provisioned on the moon could escape its far-lower gravity
using far less energy and thus far less cost. 
Also the moon is home to abundant resources. Its soil contains raw materials that might
be harvested and processed into rocket fuel or breathable air. 
We can use our time on the moon to develop and test new approaches and technologies
and systems that will allow us to function in other, more challenging, environments.  The moon is a logical step toward further progress and achievement. 
With the experience and knowledge gained on the moon, we will then be ready to take
the next steps of space exploration: human missions to Mars and to worlds beyond. 
(APPLAUSE) 
Robotic missions will serve as trailblazers, the advanced guard to the unknown. Probes,
landers and other vehicles of this kind continue to prove their worth, sending spectacular
images and vast amounts of data back to Earth. 
Yet the human thirst for knowledge ultimately cannot be satisfied by even the most vivid
pictures or the most detailed measurements. We need to see and examine and touch for
ourselves. And only human beings are capable of adapting to the inevitable uncertainties
posed by space travel. 
As our knowledge improves, we'll develop new power generation, propulsion, life
support and other systems that can support more distant travels. 
We do not know where this journey will end. Yet we know this: Human beings are
headed into the cosmos. 
(APPLAUSE) 
And along this journey, we'll make many technological breakthroughs. We don't know
yet what those breakthroughs will be. But we can be certain they'll come and that our
efforts will be repaid many times over. 
We may discover resources on the moon or Mars that will boggle the imagination, that
will test our limits to dream. 
And the fascination generated by further exploration will inspire our young people to
study math and science and engineering and create a new generation of innovators and
pioneers. 
This will be a great and unifying mission for NASA. And we know that you'll achieve it. 
I've directed Administrator O'Keefe to review all of NASA's current space flight and
exploration activities and direct them toward the goals I have outlined. 
I'll also form a commission of private- and public-sector experts to advise on
implementing the vision that I've outlined today. This commission will report to me
within four months of its first meeting. 
I'm today naming former Secretary of the Air Force Pete Aldrich to be the chair of the
commission.  (APPLAUSE) 
Thank you for being here today, Pete. 
He has tremendous experience in the Department of Defense and the aerospace industry.
And he is going to begin this important work right away. 
We'll invite other nations to share the challenges and opportunities of this new era of
discovery. 
The vision I outline today is a journey, not a race. 
And I call on other nations to join us on this journey, in the spirit of cooperation and
friendship. 
Achieving these goals requires a long-term commitment. NASA's current five-year
budget is $86 billion. Most of the funding we need for the new endeavors will come from
re-allocating $11 billion from within that budget. 
We need some new resources, however. I will call upon Congress to increase NASA's
budget by roughly a billion dollars spread over the next five years. 
This increase, along with the refocusing of our space agency, is a solid beginning to meet
the challenges and the goals that we set today. 
This is only a beginning. Future funding decisions will be guided by the progress that we
make in achieving these goals. 
We begin this venture knowing that space travel brings great risks. The loss of the space
shuttle Columbia was less than one year ago. 
Since the beginning of our space program, America has lost 23 astronauts and one
astronaut from an allied nation, men and women who believed in their mission and
accepted dangers. 
As one family member said: The legacy of Columbia must carry on for the benefit of our
children and yours. 
Columbia's crew did not turn away from the challenge, and neither will we. 
(APPLAUSE) 
Mankind is drawn to the heavens for the same reason we were once drawn into unknown
lands and across the open sea. We choose to explore space because doing so improves
our lives and lifts our national spirit.  So let us continue the journey. 
May God bless. 
(APPLAUSE)