[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 71 (Thursday, April 27, 2023)] [House] [Pages H2072-H2077] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Date: 2023-04-27
Chamber: HOUSE
Mr. MIKE GARCIA : just 120 years ago and after being around for some 300,000 years, mankind figured out how to fly in our own atmosphere. Just 2 years ago, we figured out how to fly a helicopter in the Martian atmosphere. Last fall, Artemis I completed its historic trip around the Moon, the farthest flight on a deep-space mission in a machine that is rated for human occupancy. Just last week, SpaceX, under the leadership of Elon Musk, launched the largest rocket and flying vehicle ever flown on this planet. We are truly in a new space renaissance and a new golden era for the great American journey, to the Moon and ultimately to Mars and beyond. For the folks watching at home, if you have been reading the headlines, you know that Congress has been debating several important and, frankly, existential topics here recently. Whether you are reading about the approaching debt limit crisis, our open borders, the evacuation of Americansin Sudan, the increasing aggression from the Chinese Communist Party, the CCP, or the fentanyl crisis ravaging our hometowns as a result of the open border policy, it is easy to get the idea that everything is all doom and gloom in the world today. Don't get me wrong, I understand, these are very serious issues, and, of course, issues that Congress needs to be hitting head-on, and our President needs to be doing the same. Some in our country have gotten so fixated on pointing the finger at Americans and our beautiful country and trying to say how bad we are that they have lost sight of just how exceptional we are and how we still inspire many in our country and across the globe. I stood here in this same spot 2 years ago and said: ``As a Nation, we are thirsty for something to rally behind, something that unifies us, something that we can all be invested in, be intrigued by, be impassioned about, and something to be positive about. ``There isn't a better movement to get behind than our Nation's modern space program.'' I believe in those words as strongly today as when I said them. In addition to the accomplishments I mentioned earlier, in the past 2 years, NASA and American companies have launched Artemis I, supercharging the mission to establish a permanent human presence on the lunar surface. We have sent the James Webb Space Telescope to the far side of the Moon to provide a generational leap in our understanding of the earliest days of the universe. SpaceX in the last 2 years has launched 31 payloads. NASA has recently named the next four humans to go to the Moon. These four crewmembers were named as the Artemis II crew. Three out of the four of them are F-18 pilots. One of them is a Canadian. And Miss Christina Koch, from North Carolina, who is an award-winning astronaut herself, will keep them all in line, I am sure. Congratulations to the Artemis II crew. They have worked hard for this. They are going to represent the American pinnacle of experience in space over the next several years and represent us well, as they have in the past. Mr. Speaker, my point here is twofold: One, despite all of the discord and fighting by elected officials, when government agencies are judiciously regulated and supported by Congress and partner with private entities that hire the best minds our country can offer, we can still achieve the impossible. The public-private partnership with NASA and its commercial partners is working. The international partnerships between NASA and their counterparts overseas are working. The second point is that none of this would have been possible without the 27th Congressional District of California. Ever since October 14, 1947, when Chuck Yeager freed mankind from the constraints of the sound barrier, the Antelope Valley has been synonymous with aerospace innovation. That is why it is known more frequently as the aerospace valley instead of the Antelope Valley. We are now not only the home to Edwards Air Force Base, but also to the Air Force's Plant 42 where the next generation of military aircraft, like the B-21 and F-35, are developed and built to ensure that we maintain air dominance over any nation that would challenge us. We also have the NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center where the X-59 is being developed to bring quiet supersonic flight to our commercial airways, Mr. Speaker. It is an aircraft that can fly supersonically and be hardly heard from the ground by the time it is all done. It is a fantastic development program, making the entire world more accessible than it has ever been before with commercial supersonic flight. The aerospace valley is a source of immense pride for myself and my constituents, just like how our space missions are a source of pride for the entire Nation. I say again, as I said 2 years ago, Mr. Speaker: ``Today, we have no excuses not to be inspired. We in Congress have no excuses to not support these exceptional programs in earnest and with pride. We have no choice.''  Tribute to Veterans