Press Release
From: Space Transportation Association
Posted: Tuesday, May 14, 2002
ARLINGTON, VA. May 14 -In its most comprehensive statement on the U.S. human spaceflight program ever issued in its 11-year history, the Space Transportation Association Tuesday called for making a fully reusable launch vehicle a U.S. national goal, and linking the early operations aboard the International Space Station to solving research issues associated with an early expedition to Mars by 2019.
In testimony today before the U.S. Commission on the Future of the Aerospace Industry STA Chairman Tidal W. McCoy called for a sustained increase to the annual NASA budget beginning in fiscal year 2003 and continuing for the next decade. "The down-payment for this growth should be at least a $500 million increase above the amount requested by the Bush administration, and growing incrementally over the next decade," McCoy said in additional, more detailed written testimony submitted before the commission. "We cannot have a first class space program on the cheap, and it's time we stopped trying," McCoy added.
He also called for boosts to Pentagon spending on advanced space vehicles and hailed the announcement of the National Aerospace Initiative as an important step. "We must remember former Air Force Secretary Sheila Widnall's call for an 'Air and Space Force' transforming into a 'Space and Air Force'. It's time we moved more strongly to achieve her vision," he added. McCoy also called for a reinvigoration of the Commerce Department's Commercial Space office to work more closely with industry in tracking global trends and identifying roadblocks to U.S. commercial space interests.
In other recommendations, STA Chair McCoy called for:
The Space Transportation Association is an Arlington, Virginia trade group whose members represent the U.S. space launch and human spaceflight industries. The organization supports the development of lowering the cost of access to space and strengthening the space transportation industry by the application of prudent government policy, budgets, and a benign regulatory environment.
For Additional Information Contact: Frank Sietzen, Jr. 703-685-7090
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