Math. In june, 2011, Governor Rick Snyder was secretary of education education introduced a revolutionary experiment to improve michigans lowest performing schools, taking the bottom 5 and consolidating them into a staterun district. As a result, 15 schools formerly part of the Detroit Public School system are now in the hands of the Educational Achievement authority. Many have cited the lack of a democratic process to elect board trustees. Whenever you have a governor who takes and consolidates all of that and says, i, the governor, can decide on behalf of all, thats problematic. Because youre really diminishing diversity. Youre diminishing different views, perspectives, peoples ability to weigh in and have their voice herd. We think of anne arbor as so beautiful and diverse and we dont really have in our picture that one in four students comes to us with so he shall owe economic needs. It creates an opportunity for success we know without opportunities to go to museums, do extra science activities go on trips, our students will be somewhat behind. These are often disinfranchised communities. Theyre economically stressed. They need all sorts of economic support if, in fact the schools in them are to thrive. For instance in places like finland where they have a system that the often regarded as one of the best in the world, they have a much much more narrow achievement gap because when they recognize areas with high persistent childhood poverty, they give the schools more assistance and help those families to bring those kids up to the level of proficiency that they need to. Were certainly not doing that in michigan. Were almost doing the opposite. Theres enough fires for everybody to pick up a bucket. We need media exposing the problem. We need people advocates for homeless. We need educators. Good afternoon. Id like to thank each of the distinguished witnesses for being here. A half century ago, john f. Kennedy made a commitment that like the great pioneers that came before us we too would set sail on a new sea and send man to the moon. We embarked upon that endeavor as a nation because opening the vistas of state promised high cost and hardship and enormous reward. We need to ensure that the United States remains a leader in Space Exploration in the 21st century. An american astronaut occupies on the russian soyez costs 70 million. It is imperative that the United States has the ability to get to the Russian Space station without the assistance of the russians. America should have the capability to launch a rescue mission to the space station should that prove necessary. America should not have to acquire russian rd180 engines. The commercial crew program is critical to restoring this capability. Im encouraged by the progress both with regard to commercial cargo and commercial crew. 1. 9 billion. The United States accounted for 6 of these launches. There is more that can be done to create long term predictability for the United States commercial stays industry so that launch activity will continue to grow. There is no limit to human imagination or for the desire for exploration. Every one of us every little boy and girl, man and woman, has looked up at the night sky and wondered that lies out there. That is the mystery, that is the vision behind americas Space Exploration. America has always led the way in Space Exploration and we need to reclaim that leadership. And with that, i recognize my friend, the Ranking Member of the full committee, senator nelson. Thank you mr. Chairman. Blossoms are breaking out all over washington because what you just said, you and i completely agree on. As a matter of fact, i offered in on the Armed Services committee an amendment to start and it passed. Its part of the Defense Authorization bill. To start the process. As a matter of fact, we authorized 100 million. Senator mccaine was a cosponsor of that to develop an alternative to the rd180. Indeed we should not be reliant on the russians to ride. We have in the past in the two and a half years that we were down after the loss of the Space Shuttle columbia earlier in the last decade. That was our only way to get up to the space station. And they were a reliable partner then but now, look at we cant predict what Vladimir Putin is going to do now. This was part of the speeches that i was making a decade ago as we were trying to get this thing off the ground. I am just heartened that you came off with such a strong statement about the commercial crew because this is going to be a way that we can get americans on american rockets quicker back into space since the space launch system and its spacecraft this subcommittee has always been nonpartisan. And the subject of the National Space program is a nonpartisan issue. So im looking forward to cooperating with you as we tried last year. It didnt happen on getting the authorization act. We need to get the Organization Act out of here. Just for the remaining six months of this fiscal year. And then lets start looking to the additional fiscal years behind. And with that ill just stop my comments. If i may insert my comments that i had prepared in the record for opening comments. And ill just send by saying thank you. Thank you, senator nelson for your very kind comments. I hope they are not used against you in the next campaign. I was going to say the same thing to you. Yours is a little more immediate than mine. [laughter]. And i want to thank each of the three distinguished witnesses that are here. This is a wonderful way to begin the new congress and the jurisdiction of this subcommittee by focusing on the overarching goals that nasa should be focusing on and i cannot think of a more distinguished, experienced, and more respected panel than the three witnesses that are here with us today. We first have colonel walt cunning ham, dr. Buzz aldrin astronaut, apollo 11 pilot. And michael masomino astronaut and Mission Specialist for the shuttle program. And i thank you for joining us. We will begin with colonel cunning hams testimony. Thank you, sir. I appreciate the opportunity to share my thoughts on where i believe our Space Program has been slipping and some of the things i believe nasa must do to maintain americas lead in exploration exploration exploration. We accomplished landing on the moon in eight years. Today, 45 years later, the next frontier mars seems decades out of reach. Primarily because we do not have a national commitment. Our apoll low program made america preeminent in space and the worlds most technological advanced system. The spinoffs have infiltrated virtually all areas of our industry. While nasas portion of the federal budget peaked at 4 in 1965, its been below 1 for the past 40 years. While nasa has accomplished many things and made space flight much more routine, we have not challenged the next frontier mans exploration of mars. Thats only possible if our government initiates and provides funding for such a program. Nasa has been subjected to more and more political pressure over the years and the agency has grown increasingly more political inside leaving employees much less willing to express their feelings freely and the agency much less attractive to todays young professionals. For example, nasa is still unable to reduce the number of Space Centers they operate around the country in order to lower their overhead costs. Congress and local districts have always won out. A aany Mars Exploration program will have International Partners. In that partnership nasa should take a long leadership role as they did in the apoll low program and not just be another partner in an International Partnership. Iss that we gave birth to in the 1970s is probably the most impressive piece of space hardware ever placed in orbit. Some people suggest that private Space Companies should collaborate with nasa for Space Missions beyond earths orbit which means sharing the cost. While commercial companies will always contract with nasa for the hardware and technology, the government will always be expected to pay the cost of exploration funded by tax dollars of course. Space exploration does not satisfy these criteria. Government agencies are not for profit. Guide, develop, and manage the technology. Our countrys return on investment is the private industry commercialization of the technology thats developed. Anything it could do could be more efficiently done with other projects. While we work on overcoming the problem of radiation exposure and trying to speed up travel, we should return to the moon to develop a crew facility for semipermsemi semipermanent living. Nasa should continue to exploit manned and Unmanned Missions but humans will always be much faster and more efficient because we can think and act in realtime. There are two things i believe we should focus on also. Eliminating permanently any dependence on other countries for launch capability. Two, find some ways for nasa administrators to become less subject to changes in the Administration Every four years. The human desire to explore will be satisfied if not by americans, then by others. Humans somewhere will certainly return to the moon and then to on to mars. I believe we have the resources and technology but to we have the will to tackle the next frontier mars . Thank you. Thank you, colonel cunning ham. Dr. Aldrin. Senator cruz, senator nelson nelson, committee on Space Science and competitiveness. I wish to thank the committee for the opportunity to speak to you about the future of american human space flight enterprise. This is truly an honor and i applaud you for raising this issue so early in this session. America must be the world leader in human space flight. There is no other policy area which so clearly demonstrates American Invasion and enterprise than human space flight. American leadership is more than simply getting one step ahead of our global competitors. American leadership is inspiring the inspiring the world by consistently doing what no other nation is capable of doing. For commercializing crew and Cargo Transportation to the international station could expand to provide transport of crews with life boat rotations to two redundant stations on either side of the moon. The u. S. Will lead other crews from these stations for distant controls of the assembly and check out of habitational systems. Also intricate rovers will provide ice to rocket fuel resources and other resources. We also have a reliable developed and test most of the systems needed for mars. We should participate in lieu lunar development. Lets establish a lunar infrastructure which barters visits to the surface on international landers. Deploy outbound cycling spaceships that orbit between earth and mars without requiring a great deal of propulsion. Each successive mission would only have to send astronauts landers, and the minor provisions. En route provisions are reusable on the cycler. Radiation protection. Weve developed a means for bringing people back for certain contingencies. I provided most of the detail in my written statement. Then well have a much more complete version of this plan once the study of my cycler concept is conducted by an aldrinperdue study to be finished near the end of april. In closing, i encourage you to think about the ability of free markets in space to reduce the cost and power of american ability to solve the most difficult technical challenges. Theres no more convincings way to demonstrate American Leadership for the remainder of this century then to commit to a permanent presence on mars. I thank you for your time and look forward to the committees leadership. Thank you very much, dr. Aldrin. Chairman cruz Ranking Members, and members of the subcommittee. Thank you very much for having me here today. Ive got to do some cool stuff in my life and this is right up there. Really honored to be here. Thank you. I want to describe to you a few things that ive learned as an astronaut. Some benefits that our Space Program has provided for our country and the whole world. I want to tell you a story from one flight that i think wraps it up. The first benefit i want to tell you about is how the human Exploration Program can benefit science and life on earth. And theres lots of examples we can use but the one im most familiar is the Hubble Space Telescope. Its given us a window into the universe out there. Its found black holes, dark matter dark energy. Inspired many people to continue studying the universe and shown us the beauty and wonder of whats out there. None of that is possible without human exploration. The second thing i want to point out is International Cooperation. When i was a new astronaut in 1996, we were starting to work with our International Partners to build the space station. None of the elements had launched yet. And sitting here listening to the briefings as a new person not really knowing what was going on at the time i wondered how are we going to make this work . How do we work with all these countries, europe japan, russia. The u. S. Was clearly going to be a leader but how are we going to work with everybody . Different cultures languages, systems of measurements. But i discovered that when we all had a common goal it didnt matter what country you were from. With that common goal we were able to achieve a great thing, the interNational Space station. So International Cooperation is the second benefit that i discovered of the Space Program. And the third is inspiration for young people. Im sitting next to two of my boy hood heros. I watched this man walk on the moon when i was six years old and it changed my life and inspired me to become an astronaut. Not many younger than me can remember that but the ones that are at least my age and older that i trained with can point to what walt and buzz did as what inspired them. These kids want to change the world, they want to be entrepreneurial. They see the Space Program as a way to do that. They see these smart and successful entrepreneurs helping the economy through space and they see these people as role models for them to follow. So its not just nasa doing big projects its also this entrepreneurial spirit. The story i want to tell you. On my second space flight first space flight, second space walk, i had a chance to walk around during the space walk and at hubble were about 100 miles higher. I was able to see the curve which you are of the earth. There are no words to describe how beautiful our planet ature of the earth. There are no words to describe how beautiful our planet is. What went through my mind is if you were in heaven and could look down, this is how beautiful our planet is. And then i thought, no its more beautiful than that. I felt like this is what heaven must look like. I felt like i was looking at paradise. Thats how beautiful our planet is, its fragile, its a paradise paradise, and we need to take care of it. Thank you. Thank you for that powerful and eh rock tav imageryvocative imagery. I would like to start by just asking the panel, how good a job are we doing today leading the world in Space Exploration and how could we do better . Were not really leading the world. Hit your microphone please. We have a facility up in space and weve invested a lot in it. Weve gone to it put it together, gone to it for quite a while. And then we changed our spacecraft to move to another program and that program didnt come together because of problems with the booster not being powerful enough so we had to go to another booster to take a spacecraft from a company that hasnt built a spacecraft before. So it was gaining weight and wasnt able to put itself and the lander into lunar orbit so we had to make the lander even bigger. And that same rocket was being used on five so it appeared as though we were not able to get the crew up there with the existing rocket so we continued to develop the orion and sort of shelved the heavy lift vehicle and without orion going somewhere theres no point in continuing the lander. So the program really fell apart. Excuse me. Just tell us if thats a call from the space station. [laughter] [laughter]. Colonel cunning ham, you talked about what you perceived to be excessive politics at nasa and the challenges that it presents. I was curious if you could elaborate on that and what steps could be taken to help nasa focus on what should be its core mission. I mentioned a little bit of the politics from outside of nasa thats increasingly over the years grown increasingly on nasa. And its had a lot to do with controlling the projects went into and what they did not. But also in my opinion its affected the agency itself. People inside nasa are just not willing to speak their mind on things to get them done. Some of these programs money has been spent on and theyve been canceled and we tried to single stage it one time. I think a billion dollars on that. So whats happened is nasa has changed. In my opinion, theyve become a much more riskaverse agency over the years. For example, we all realize that until we launched the Hubble Space Telescope is the greatest telescope weve ever had. Well, were going to have the use of the Hubble Space Telescope for at least another five years it looks like but that would not