The crowd included several members of Congress including House Majority Leader Tom Delay, Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), who flew a 1986 mission aboard shuttle Columbia as chairman of the House Science Committee.
Also present were Rep. Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY), the current Chairman of the House Science Committee, Rep. Bart Gordon (D-Tenn.) the ranking minority member of the Science Committee, Rep. Bud Cramer (D-Ala.) and Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Tex.).
Delay said getting the Presidents budget plan for the new program through Congress would not be a problem. The wealth of this nation can sustain a program like this, Delay said in an interview after Bush left the auditorium. As the economy continues to grow and expand we will be able to afford an even more ambitious program in the future.
Sen. Nelson agreed. The President has given us the vision; now we have to put the juice behind it, he said. Nelson said he also is eager to see the details of the budget plan, particularly how it will affect other NASA programs.
Bush was introduced by NASA Administrator Sean OKeefe and Expedition Eight commander Michael Foale, who offered televised greetings from the International Space Station.
Bush said he wished he could shake Foales hand and asked OKeefe to bring him to the White House when he returns from low Earth orbit, an event planned for next April. The president also sought to reassure the other 15 countries involved in the International Space Station program that the United States will meet its obligations to them.
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 on future research aboard the station on the long-term effects of space travel on human biology, Bush said.
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.
NASA's New Mandate
Bush said that through such efforts NASA would 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, Bush said.
The president said the shuttle's chief purpose during the next several years will be to help finish assembly of the International Space Station before it is mothballed. In 2010, the space shuttle, after nearly 30 years of duty, will be retired from service, Bush said.
The President announced the appointment of former Air Force Secretary Edward (Pete) Aldrich to head a commission that will report back to the White House in four months to let the President know what it will take for NASA to fulfill its new mandate.
Aldrich recently retired from his last job as the undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics. He also previously served as president of the Aerospace Corp. in El Segundo, Calif.
When asked by reporters if there are national security implications in the new plan, Aldrich said they would be indirect, such as the value of inspiring a new generation of young people to pursue careers in science and engineering.
Aldrich said he also at this point is not sure of the impact the new program will have on exiting programs or whether any NASA field centers will need to be closed. I dont know that yet, he said.
After listing many of Americas accomplishments in space, Bush declared: For all these successes, much remains for us to explore and learn.
We choose to explore space because doing so improves lives and improves our national spirit. So let us continue our journey, Bush said.
Noting that it has been more than 30 years since humans set foot on the moon, Bush acknowledged the presence of Eugene Cernan, who as commander of Apollo 17 is the most recent man to walk on the Moon. Gene Cernan 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, Bush vowed to loud applause.
Funding the New Vision
Bush said his new space exploration strategy initially will be paid for with $1 billion in new funding for NASA spread over the next five years, and by shifting $11 billion from other space agency programs.
Congressional sources said they were told that much of that reprogramming will affect science programs, particularly those not related to the new exploration efforts, but they said the NASA briefers declined to be specific about what programs might be affected.
The rate of growth for the science budget will be slowed down, one congressional source said.
Talking to reporters after Bushs speech, Rep. Boehlert, whose committee, authorizes NASA programs, said Earth Science and Aeronautics programs are not dead at NASA."
Gassem Asrar, NASAs administrator for Earth Science said he actually sees a revitalized future for Earth science at NASA because of the applications that can be adapted for planetary explorations.
A New Enterprise
Following the president's speech, O'Keefe offered reporters a preview of how NASA will be reorganized to handle the new exploration initiative.
The centerpiece of effort will be creation of a new Exploration Systems Enterprise, which will be responsible for the development of the proposed Crew Exploration Vehicle. The enterprise also will be given charge of other major space technology development efforts, such as the nuclear power and propulsion work that is part of Project Prometheus.
The new enterpise wil be led by Rear Admiral Craig Steidle, according to NASA sources. Among his more recent jobs, Steidle was program manager for the Joint Strike Fighter Program.
As part of the reorganization, NASA is going to create a separate enterprise for its aeronautics research, which previously was lumped together with aerospace technology development.
Ensuring Success
To duplicate former President John F. Kennedys success in winning congressional and popular support for his proposals, Bush needs to find a way to ensure that his vision endures even as political conditions shift, said Mike Griffin, a former NASA official who led NASAs space exploration efforts in the early 1990s.
Kennedys dramatic pronouncement and his call for Congress to support the efforts very heavy costs came as the United States was heavily engaged in the Cold War and had ample justification to show off its technological prowess, Griffin said. Yet by 1973 when the last Apollo capsule returned from the moon in triumphant fulfillment of Kennedys ambitions the United States had set aside its interest in space in favor of other priorities laid out by President Richard M. Nixon, he said.
We have repudiated nearly everything else that came out of the Nixon administration, but we are still living with the consequences of the Nixon space program, said Griffin.
Today, as Bush seeks to restore NASAs luster in the wake of the painful loss last year of the space shuttle Columbia, he will in a sense pick up where the Apollo program left off more than 25 years ago, said Lewis Peach, chief engineer of the Universities Space Research Association in Columbia, Md. There was no buy into longer-term goals by NASA once the Apollo program stopped. Peach said. It wasnt sustainable. Once it was done, there was nothing for the future."
Bushs father, President George H.W. Bush, attempted to turn the United States back in the direction of Mars in a 1989 speech marking the 20th anniversary of the first lunar landing, Apollo 11. But Griffin who joined NASA to turn the elder Bushs ideas into reality said the proposals never took hold because Congress did not see the value in investing heavily in space exploration.
Theres an old saying that the administration proposes and Congress disposes, Griffin said. The first President Bush was unable to convince the nation that the country needs to be the pre-eminent space-faring nation because is it about exploring the frontier and that is what great nations do."
John Logsdon, director of the Space Policy Institute at the George Washington University here, said the scathing report by the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) could give Bush and NASA momentum as they seek the support that was lacking in 1989. Back then, said Logsdon, NASA didnt have the kind of criticism that came out the CAIB about it having a lack of vision. NASA wasnt involved in the initiative, and they werent very enthusiastic.
Griffin said it will be essential for Bushs space vision to resonate deeply enough with the public that future presidents and members of Congress are not tempted to scale back or derail the nations space ambitions. Griffin noted that programs with broad public appeal - such as Social Security, established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1930s endure indefinitely even as they periodically come up for debate. While someone must first articulate the vision, succeeding political administrations must continue [to support it], he said.
Rep. Dave Weldon (R-Fla.), whose district comprises much of Florida's Space Coast, thinks such support can be sustained.
"I think this is the best thing that has happened to the space program in decades. When you really look back over the last 30 years we've had a lack of clarity, purpose and direction. George W. Bush laid out a plan that I think is doable from a financial and political side as well."
Senior Producer Jim Banke contributed to this story from the Cape Canaveral Bureau.
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