DeLay: No Risk, No Reward in Space
Posted on: Friday, 4 June 2004, 06:00 CDT
U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, Thursday urged support for President Bush's call for renewed and expanded space exploration.
The time has come for NASA to once again dare mighty things, DeLay said in a speech on the floor of the House of Representatives. The history of mankind is not a matter of advance despite the risks, but advance, in a sense, because of them. Of course space travel is risky. It's the most dangerous enterprise in history, but also the greatest adventure. If space travel were easy, everyone would do it.
DeLay had sharp words for the critics of Bush's proposals who say it is too costly and risky.
Such thinking would have left Columbus in Spain, Magellan in Portugal and Lewis and Clark in Virginia .... The risks involved in turning our backs on space far outweigh the risks of advancing farther into it.
In a speech last January, the president set out new goals for the U.S. space program that included retiring the space shuttle fleet after completion of the International Space Station, a return to the moon and future manned missions to Mars.
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