S. HRG. 112–576 PRIORITIES, PLANS, AND PROGRESS OF THE NATION’S SPACE PROGRAM HEARING BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION UNITED STATES SENATE ONE HUNDRED TWELFTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION MARCH 7, 2012 Printed for the use of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation ( U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 76–351 PDF WASHINGTON : 2012 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512–1800; DC area (202) 512–1800 Fax: (202) 512–2104 Mail: Stop IDCC, Washington, DC 20402–0001 VerDate Nov 24 2008 13:25 Oct 24, 2012 Jkt 075679 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 5011 Sfmt 5011 S:\GPO\DOCS\76351.TXT JACKIE SENATE COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION ONE HUNDRED TWELFTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER IV, West Virginia, Chairman DANIEL K. INOUYE, Hawaii KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON, Texas, Ranking JOHN F. KERRY, Massachusetts OLYMPIA J. SNOWE, Maine BARBARA BOXER, California JIM DEMINT, South Carolina BILL NELSON, Florida JOHN THUNE, South Dakota MARIA CANTWELL, Washington ROGER F. WICKER, Mississippi FRANK R. LAUTENBERG, New Jersey JOHNNY ISAKSON, Georgia MARK PRYOR, Arkansas ROY BLUNT, Missouri CLAIRE MCCASKILL, Missouri JOHN BOOZMAN, Arkansas AMY KLOBUCHAR, Minnesota PATRICK J. TOOMEY, Pennsylvania TOM UDALL, New Mexico MARCO RUBIO, Florida MARK WARNER, Virginia KELLY AYOTTE, New Hampshire MARK BEGICH, Alaska DEAN HELLER, Nevada ELLEN L. DONESKI, Staff Director JAMES REID, Deputy Staff Director JOHN WILLIAMS, General Counsel TODD BERTOSON, Republican Staff Director JARROD THOMPSON, Republican Deputy Staff Director REBECCA SEIDEL, Republican General Counsel and Chief Investigator (II) VerDate Nov 24 2008 13:25 Oct 24, 2012 Jkt 075679 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 S:\GPO\DOCS\76351.TXT JACKIE C O N T E N T S Page Hearing held on March 7, 2012 .............................................................................. 1 Statement of Senator Nelson .................................................................................. 1 Statement of Senator Hutchison ............................................................................ 4 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 6 Statement of Senator Udall .................................................................................... 8 Statement of Senator Rubio .................................................................................... 33 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 33 Statement of Senator Boozman .............................................................................. 38 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 38 WITNESSES Hon. Charles F. Bolden Jr., Administrator, National Aeronautics and Space Administration ..................................................................................................... 9 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 11 Neil deGrasse Tyson, Ph.D., Astrophysicist, American Museum of Natural History; Director Hayden Planetarium, New York City ................................... 40 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 42 APPENDIX Response to written questions submitted to Hon. Charles F. Bolden, Jr. by: Hon. Bill Nelson ............................................................................................... 49 Hon. Barbara Boxer ......................................................................................... 50 Hon. Mark Warner ........................................................................................... 55 Hon. Tom Udall ................................................................................................ 57 Hon. Kay Bailey Hutchison ............................................................................. 64 Response to written questions submitted to Neil deGrasse Tyson, Ph.D. by: Hon. Bill Nelson ............................................................................................... 74 Hon. Tom Udall ................................................................................................ 75 Hon. Kay Bailey Hutchison ............................................................................. 75 (III) VerDate Nov 24 2008 13:25 Oct 24, 2012 Jkt 075679 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 S:\GPO\DOCS\76351.TXT JACKIE VerDate Nov 24 2008 13:25 Oct 24, 2012 Jkt 075679 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 S:\GPO\DOCS\76351.TXT JACKIE PRIORITIES, PLANS, AND PROGRESS OF THE NATION’S SPACE PROGRAM WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 2012 U.S. SENATE, COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION, Washington, D.C. The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:04 a.m., in Room SR–253, Russell Senate Office Building, Hon. Bill Nelson presiding. OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. BILL NELSON, U.S. SENATOR FROM FLORIDA Senator NELSON. Good morning. Mr. Administrator, Senator Hutchison and I just solved your problems. [Laughter.] Senator HUTCHISON. We look forward to working with you on it. Senator NELSON. We are delighted that you are here. Thank you, General Bolden, for your service to this country. A long and distinguished career in the United States Marine Corps, the Astronaut Office, and now as the Administrator of NASA, we are most appreciative of your personal service and your commit- ment to this country and your continuing service. This past year has been a real busy one for NASA. What a monu- mental achievement it was to complete the construction of the Space Station, and now that crew members don’t have to focus on assembly of the ISS, they are getting on with the important re- search up there. Remember, this was one of the things that John Glenn kept pounding over and over, as a Senator—it is hard to be- lieve it has been 14 years since his retirement. But he is still at it, as you know. And we just had the 50th anniversary of his Mercury flight cele- bration, and John was at it again, saying the same thing—re- search, research. Utilize that facility up there that we have. And we have six people up there right now. And better cancer treatment delivery systems are being devel- oped. We have had breakthroughs in vaccine research, and I never want to miss the opportunity to point out that we have a National Laboratory on the Space Station thanks to Senator Hutchison and that in this lab they have now developed the processes and the drugs, basically, that are now in their final FDA trials as a vaccine for salmonella and another drug that is in its initial FDA trials that is a vaccination for MRSA, which is the explosive bacteria that ravages so many hospitals that they find it very difficult to find drugs that can control it. (1) VerDate Nov 24 2008 13:25 Oct 24, 2012 Jkt 075679 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 S:\GPO\DOCS\76351.TXT JACKIE 2 And so, in this space program, we have discovered techniques for performing remote ultrasounds. And recently, we have taken an- other great step forward, and this was something again that I give great credit to Senator Hutchison. The Alpha Magnetic Spectrom- eter was delivered and is measuring cosmic rays, seeking answers to some of the universe’s best-kept secrets, such as the nature of dark matter. And so, now that the station is complete, NASA then retired the Space Shuttle. And remember, why did it retire it? Because if you remember, when we lost Columbia in 2003, Admiral Gehman’s commission that did the investigation said you fly the Space Shut- tle just as long as you have to to build the Space Station because of taking up the components that have been developed to fit in the cargo bay. And once it is completed, you replace the Space Shuttle with a safer rocket. And if you look at the designs of the commercial competition that is going on, you find that the crew is on the top of the rocket with the escape system so that if you have an explosion on the pad, you can save the crew. You can save the crew all the way to orbit by detaching the capsule and bringing the crew safely back. NASA’s very dedicated and talented workforce operated the Space Shuttles for 30 years, and it helped us open a whole new chapter in our space exploration and a window into the cosmos. We did that by launching and servicing and repairing and fixing over and over again the Space Telescope, Hubble, and protecting our way of life by deploying national security satellites and advancing our knowledge of the solar system by launching interplanetary probes. You have heard a lot about the very moving stories of the efforts to have the final Space Shuttle mission to perfection, absolute per- fection while most of that workforce knew that they were going to be laid off. Well, that is the kind of dedicated and proud workforce that America needs to continue to have in our next generation of exploration systems. Now we know we have the SLS and the Orion programs going ahead. One of the things we are going to discuss, General, is that we don’t think you have enough in your budget for Orion. You have got to be able to have an Orion, a capsule that is completed, to put on top of a rocket, the SLS. Late this spring, major components for Orion’s upcoming test flight are going to arrive at the Cape, and workers will finish as- sembling and testing the capsule for a 2014 launch. In 2 years, we