Aderholt Discusses The Space Program With Astronauts Neil Armstrong & Eugene Cernan

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ADERHOLT MEETS WITH ASTRONAUTS NEIL ARMSTRONG AND EUGENE CERNAN TO DISCUSS WAYS TO SAVE HUMAN SPACE FLIGHT

Armstrong & Cernan Strongly Believe That NASA Shouldn’t Rely So Heavily On Commercial Companies

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Robert Aderholt (R-AL) today met with astronauts Neil Armstrong and Eugene Cernan to discuss ways to defeat the President’s plan to cancel the NASA Constellation program. Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong, who was the first man to walk on the moon, and Apollo 17 commander Eugene Cernan, who is the last man to walk on the moon, both agree that there are serious problems with the President’s space proposal, especially the plan to have commercial launches as the only option for human spaceflight. Armstrong and Cernan were in Washington to testify before a U.S. Senate Committee on the future of NASA.

“It is quite an honor to partner with astronaut greats, Neil Armstrong and Eugene Cernan, in fighting to preserve our nation’s phenomenal space program,” said Congressman Aderholt. “Since the announcement of the President’s plan to kill the constellation mission, many Americans have joined those in Congress in boldly rejecting the plan and I am thankful that Armstrong and Cernan are here to publicly speak out against it.”

Aderholt continued, “Today, we talked about how the President’s NASA plan will cut thousands of jobs across north Alabama and the nation and, more devastatingly, will forfeit America’s leadership in space. This leadership will most likely be picked up by countries like Russia and China. Mr. Cernan and Mr. Armstrong both emphatically believe that relying on commercial companies that, in some cases, have little experience with building manned space systems will severely weaken our standing as the world’s leader in human space flight. I believe that there are many members of Congress who do not want this to happen and I hope that all of Congress will heed Armstrong and Cernan’s plea to make a commitment to a properly funded the Constellation program.”

Congressman Aderholt serves on the powerful House Appropriations Committee, as a member of the Commerce, Justice and Science Subcommittee, which is responsible for funding NASA.

Days before the President’s April Space Summit in Florida, Armstrong, Cernan and several other astronauts wrote a public letter to the President blasting his decision to cancel NASA’s back-to-the-moon program, saying that the move is “devastating” to America’s space effort. The letter noted that the U.S. space effort will be dependent for years to come on the Russians for transport to the International Space Station, at a cost of more than $50 million per seat.

"For the United States, the leading spacefaring nation for nearly half a century, to be without carriage to low Earth orbit and with no human exploration capability to go beyond Earth orbit for an indeterminate time into the future, destines our nation to become one of second or even third-rate stature," they said in the letter.

"America must decide if it wishes to remain a leader in space," the astronauts said. "If it does, we should institute a program which will give us the very best chance of achieving that goal."

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