Transcripts For CSPAN2 NASA Administrator Bridenstine Testifies On Future Missions 20240712

Cspan2. Next, nasa administrator jim bryden sign talks about future emissions and changes at the agency due to the coronavirus pandemic. This is one hour and 40 minutes. [inaudible conversations] this hearing will come to order. Nd20 has been a year of challenge and triumph for Americas National space agency. Covid19 pandemic has disrupted planning and daytoday operations but nasa and its commercial partners have achieved many successful outcomes. These include longchain american astronauts to the International Space station and returning them safely to earth. And returning that launch vehicle safely to earth. Launching a perseverance rover to mars in preparing the space launch systems sls rocket and iranian crew capsule for the first deeps place but Nation Program next year. Im pleased that nasa administrator jimpl is here to provide us with an update on nasas mission and programs and the agencys plans for the future. Further progress is critical to achieving the goals of landing the first woman on the next moon by 2024 and establishing a presence on and around the lunar surface by 2028. Congress is giving her support for key components of our administration and notably the rocket in the orion crew capsule and human lander sister competition and various rovers and instruments to study the Lunar Service grid last week administrative announced a detailed plan for the Artemis Program projecting a total cost of 28 billion three fiscal years 2021 and 2025 and beginning bipartisan support for artemis is essential. Members need confidence in nasas longterm plan and health administered or will lay out the details cost and schedule for artemis to help give us that confidence. Artemis Program Receives a justifiable large amount of attention but we should also recognize the tremendous succesc of the commercial crew program. On may 30 nasas space x team launched american astronauts ona american rockets on american soil for the First Time Since 2011. Commercial crew represents a true Publicprivate Partnership where the government buys services from state Space Companies and would be helpful for the administrator if you would highlight how nasa is implement teen Lessons Learned of commercial crew development. In november of last year this committee passed a nasa authorization act demonstrating a strong support for artemis commercial crew. The legislation strongly supported nasas key science priorities and Aeronautics Research, planetary exploration, Stem Education and other initiatives. Today the administratorn bridenstine can provide an update on these missions and describe any major impacts on cost, schedule or operations across the pandemic. Nasa plays an Important Role in americas whole of government approach securing the spacepr domain for exploration, science and commerce paid Great Power Competition is a reality in chinas space ambitions are wellknown in the Chinese Communist party has devoted and honest resources to military and civil Space Programs. Nasa recently signed a memorandum of understanding with the newly created usb source to bolster collaboration on standards and best practices for Space Operations, Scientific Research and planetary defense. F the administrator bridenstine may want to comment on the memorandum of understanding and where he Sees Opportunities for collaboration with the space force. Even with this years successes Program Vulnerabilities remain in as the Artemis Program permits we should remain vigilant to protect and strengthen International Partnerships particularly those built around the International Space station and low earth orbit research. We should ensure that groundbreaking initiatives such as robotic mars mission and planetary observatories making progress and maintaining forces and maintain focus on artemis and other missions will acquire continued support and funding from congress. I look forward to todaysni conversation with the administrator and intern to my dear friend and colleague Ranking Member for her Opening Statement. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you for the bipartisan leadership on that nasa reoperation bill. I am glad to join you to offer this act of 2019. Among other things this legislation would provide pauthorization for humanar Exploration Program including the lunar lander needed to return humans to the moon and there is agreement between the bills sponsors about how to proceed on the authorization i hope the senate will consider this important bill this year. Nasas recent Economic Impact and also shows that 2019 agency generated more than 64 billion in economic output and afforded more than 312,000 jobs nationwide a nasa and the space industry particularly important in the state of washington with space activity account for 1. 8 billion of our states economy with Companies Like blue origin, space x and aerojet, Rocket Science and thousands of jobs are dependent on his growing space industry. I would say theres a reason we have the space needle. 2020 was a sin of a near for nasa and for the first time in nine years nasa astronauts launched the safe from the u. S. Oil but for the First Time Ever those astronauts launched on a commercial spacecraft marking the dawn of a new era for nasa. 2021 promises to be an even bigger ear for the agency into commercial providers will begin regularly carrying astronauts to the International Space station and 2021 will also be the first launch of nasas space launch system which was returnedce astronauts deep space in a few years. I am looking forward to watching americans exit the lunar lander which will be built in the state of washington and stepped onto the surface of the moon for the first time in more than 40 years and i am very enthusiastic about the Artemis Program which will put the first woman on the moon. We need more than just that womens first step. We need women and minorities to be representative at every level of the nasa and Space Program and so i look forward to working with you and the chairman and how we increase the diversity in all our aerial space industry given the many new rockets of the spacecraft nasa astronauts will fly over the decades its imperative we stay committed to safety. Safety must always be the top priority and for that to happen nasa engineers and Program Managers must have insight into the design and testing of new spacecraft. A major safety issue for nasa is the threat of orbital debris, just last week the space station was forced to maneuver away from the space debris. Vibrator Committee Held a hearing on threats to space and i called for increased investment in mapping of space debris and improved Space Situational Awareness. Mr. Chairman, i know you are addressing the start and look forward to working with you on this issue. On nasas human space are often in the spotlight other research is critical to the country. As i said in washington many f western states we face an unbelievable threat from s havastating wildfires and nasa satellites provide data that immediately Disaster Management teams to measure the intensity of fires as they burn and they also want to highlight nasa Space Grant Program again aag consortium at the university of washington is doing to manage work to engage High School Students and undergraduates in these areas and research and study gets us the next generation workforce and the covid19 pandemic has impacted programs as well as people support them as well as they are employers or researchers and i look for to hearing how this committee my work with nasa to keep the program on track with keeping people safely employed and this is a challenge but obviously we want to keep moving so we look forward to your questions and comments in testimony administrator bridenstine so thank you fore being here today and again, mr. Chairman, thank you for holding this important hearing. I think i heard state of washington mentioned several times and senator cantwells Opening Statement. Clearly i should havey mentiond my Opening Statement the Important Role of the state of mississippi and all of the activities that we have planned, particularly in the space center in hancock county, mississippi. At this point administrator bridenstine, we have your prepared statement consisting of seven pages in small type that we will enter that into the record at this point and you are recognized for five minutes orre so to summarize your statement. Thank you, chairman wicker and Ranking Member cantwell. It is an honor to be here. I will tell you i want to start by thanking you for the support we received in the cares act which ultimately enabled us to move forward on some of our very Important Missions and we call them Mission Essential functions of nasa and we needed that personal protective equipment we needed the ability to make sure our crews is socially distant and all of the things necessary to be safe in the cares act was really a part of that and we thank you for that. So nasa is up to some Amazing Things in the two of you highlighted them very well and lower are commercializing very rapidly and we have been underweight with commercial resupply for number of years and now we are moving forward withme commercial crew which we are all very, very excited about and demo two is complete and that was the test flight here at the end of october and we would launch crew one we will have a full complement of or astronauts including one International Partner from japan and so this is a very exciting time for the agency as we move rapidly to commercialized space but it is not just about commercial resupply and commercial crew we also want commercial safe agents themselves eventually. International space station has been an amazing asset to the United States and it still is and will be four years to come but we all know a day is going to, when it comes to the end of its useful life. When that happens we need to have funded the resources necessary to commercialize habitations and we want to make sure that in the United States and within your help we can ensure that we have no gap in low earth orbit. We think about apollo and we had during the apollo era as much as we love it came to an end but we had a gap of about eight years before Space Shuttle and then after space several retired we had another gap of about eight years before commercial crew and we want to make sure there is no gap in lower orbit for the United States of america as we transition to the international sace station to commercial space stations. As both of both of you have edified what is happening in lower earth orbit as awesome as it is pales in comparison to what we lay on the first woman or the next man on the surface of the moon under the Artemis Program. We will have Important Reasons but the chief reason to go to the moon is because it accelerates our path to mars. We believe it is important for the first person to land on mars to be an american astronaut and we want to make sure that when we do go to mars we go with our International Partners and this is about American Leadership and of course what we just saw in fact yesterday japan announced its biggest budget for its space agency and its industry. In fact, it was a 50 increase over the previous year. Ndat is a massive increase for a nation like japan and they are focusing it on the Artemis Program. They are focused on supporting us as we lead the world to the moon. I will say that is not unique and weve seen budgets coming from europe that are also increasing commensurate with the Artemis Program and nasas budget. A lot of really exciting things in the future and of course im grateful to you, chairman wicker into Ranking Member cantwell for the continued bipartisan support for these Important Missions foh our country great with that i will yield back whatever time i have remaining and certainly open to any questions. Thank you very much. You recently announced the Artemis One Mission will take place at the end of november of next year. Part of the role in my home state ofrt mississippi is in the testing space or alarm system rocket engine. How is the green run testing and its progressing and do you have a target date for the full duration hot fire test. Green run testing is progressing very well and the rocket and this is the core state of the sls rocket and it is proving itself to be an extreme and capable system and we still have a good bit of testing in front of us including the full green run where we fire all four as 25 engines at the same time. That will be an amazing sight to see likely to happen in november and we will move rapidly toward that. We had challenges of course with some hurricanes and weve had challenges with covid but we have successes and so we are moving forward and we think the green run test will be done in november early november and we also believe this sets us up for the first launch of the sls system with an orion crew capsule in november of 2021. We are moving rapidly towards that. Do you think were stillll on track to meet that november 2021 date . As of right now, yes we are. There are challenges to ensure depending on how covid affects that in the months ahead but ite could be more challenging but it will say because this is a mission that is so unique we do have margin in the schedule and have a reserve in the schedule and in the cost and nasa has that for all its missions and as of this point we have not determined that we need to move off the november date of next year. Ive been very impressed with how nasa has moved forward on any number of target dates. Let me ask about the continuing resolution. This week and obviously that is never a deal but the covid19 pandemic pretty much dictated that. This is a brief cr. It doesnt carry into next year. You have spoken about the problem of a longterm continuing resolution and if you will, please discuss the broader impacts we cant get our job done november and december, what that would mean for your programs . Yes, sir. The hardest part right now is that human landing system. That human landing system is what right now we are not funded to develop in its entirety. We are funded through what we call the base. We got the resources to go through basically february of 2021. Between now and n february 2021i think we are okay but if we get to february of 2021 without an appropriation that will really put the brakes on our ability to achieve a moon landing by as early 2024. It is important to get these appropriations and i will also tell you, sir, the sooner we get the appropriation the higher the probability is of success. We are grateful that i know that the house and the senate are moving towards a cr rather than a shutdown and that is we are very grateful for that. I speak for the entire nasa workfares when i say that but i will also say that the sooner we can get an appropriation the higher the probability of success to the moon landing as soon as 2024. That is the appropriation. What about the authorization bill . How important is it to pass an updated authorization bill . In my view, very important. I was an authorizer and house of representatives i can sell you it enabled me to administrator is demonstrate that this has strong bipartisan support that is lasting. Appropriations are oneyear in nature and they give us what we need to fund the programorutione fundamental how question i get is a nasa administrator. People asked me how to ensure that this program doesnt get g canceled . Like nasa had a history of seen programs get developed and then canceled. The answer is we need the authorization bill that codifies what we are doing has brought National Consensus and bipartisan supportrt and i think we are there but putting that into law really would be meaningful for the agency. Thank you. Senator cantwell. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Administrator bridenstine, one of the things that we hear a loa about as again, we change and innovate is the level of the workforce and stamp and we worked very hard on Stem Education in the state of washington and certainly want to work on it on a National Perspective so i want to hear thoughts on what else we need to be doing and what else is that skills cap look like and also interested in nasas x plane flight Demonstration Program for a transonic trust ray queen and one of things we are interested is not just composites but continuing to the development of composite manufacturing so i want to understand what you think we should be doing on that kind of technology for the future as well. Er yes, very good questions. I will tell you the transonic trust brace wing has me very excited about the future of aviation trade when we think about the value of nasa to the United States of america a lot of people think about space and the moon and mars and Robotic Exploration of the Solar Systems but the aeronautics piece is probably the most impact to the American Economy because this is a major export for the country and weve been leaving here for so many generations but ofon course we had the challenge with the max eight and we had the challenge with covid and when we talk about aeronautics it kind of right now is being stressed significantly. We have to, as a nation, take this opportunity and lead. D when i say lead that transonic trust break wing is a key tore that leadership we are talking about increasing what we call the aspect ratio of a wing andon making it longer and thinner in the big think that that does is reduces what we call induced drag which is the drag you get from the list created by the aircraft. It spreads out the downward thrust of the wing. It does increase what we call parasitic drag from the wing but that parasitic drag is less than the other drag so overall you get a much more efficient aircraft and it drives down the amount of fuel you have to use and it drives down the amount of Carbon Emissions and it drives down the cost of the airline and that is a challenge with that high aspect ratio wing and the challenge with that is that it becomes long and thin so it doesnt have the structuretu necessary to hold up a large body aircraft. Im a huge proponent of that weve been advocating for that inside, not just the agency but inside the administration in general and we are getting some traction on it. Any support that you can provide would be fantastic. Lets see,. Well, so stem, in this case its c a composite issue and soe need composite r d and more understanding on the composite manufacturing inside. Yes, again this is very important and it would be when it comes to stem winning thato next generation workforce and so weve got to be inspiring people at a young age. I think the best thing nasa can do for encouraging people to go into stem is inspire them. Do these stunning missions like landing the first woman on the moon and those kinds of activities. We are also very involved at the Mission Director level and funding programs like first robotics which is a capability that gets High School Kids and even younger involved in robotics so we do those things and direct impact to their submissions. If you look at robotics on mars and robotics throughout the solar system with satellites and orbiters and other planets. I think there is a lot that nasa does only need to continue to do for stem. I dont know what it is about material science but we have been able to attract more women, Structural Engineering might not but something that we merelyta appealed to them but certainly would be attracted them to aviation but we are having more success ofss material science aside and i dont know if thats a marriage of Chemical Engineering or other things butt i think we should figure out how to put this challenge to, as you said, the youngest of americans as they think about these issues and i dont know why this isnt a marriage of ideas given that you are talking about fuel efficiency and american jobs and leadership in all these things that would come from this. It is as exciting as the other missions too. Thank you. Yes maam. Administrator bridenstine, the Ranking Member mentioned space debris and let me drill down on that just a little bit. Is the frequency of avoidance maneuvers increasing . Just a few days ago nasaed maneuvered the International Space station to record a piece of space debris. Ne this happened three times this year and so is that increasing ever . It is. This year we maneuvered the space station three times in order to avoid orbital debris. That has not happened since 2015. In this year weve done it three times. T its. Is that just a coincidence . I dont think its a good m sentence but i was late in the last two weeks or maybe three weeks at this point we have had three potential conjunctions that made us very nervous and that is in the last two, three weeks. Apart from the maneuver that we had to make. Well, we knew about them but it wasas far enough away that we did not have to maneuver. Yes, sir. We monitored them very closely and made a determination that it didnt require a maneuver. What is the source of this debris . A lot of reasons for it. Theres a lot of commercial activity in space which we fully support and weve got to be able to use space for all its benefits for humanity. A lotot of that commercial activity is wanting the low earth orbit remarked room or something satellites or communication satellites from the earth and low earth orbit instrument is a valuable fork medications because its low latency. The types of signals thatt you can use in the standards that you use are more like a Cell Phone Technology whereas we think about geostationary orbit which is far from earth you have to use different protocols so low earth orbit is where all the constellations want to be in the challenges we dont have as a nation or even as a world a robust architecture for how we will integrate all of these capabilities into the small space. It is becoming more and more of a problem. The president is not a small space but it is. The challenge is the probabilities of impact are measured based on the amount of data that we received in the probabilities of impact are measured in one in 1000 chances, one in 5000 chances, wanted 10000 and for us as an agencyl with the International Space station which is 100 billiondollar investment we take those probabilities and say we need to maneuver. Are these functioning objects or are they junk . Both. When i think of debris i think of something left over in the past. Yes, sir, this object we had to maneuver forward a few days ago is unidentified. We dont know what it is we dont know where it came from and it is not something that is operated but literally junk in space. There are also satellites that have become debris because they just came to the end of their useful life, end of their useful lives and they dont deorbit themselves and they will over a number of years but they are still now. We also have, we also have just eva lot more activity from our International Friends if you will pray they dont necessarily all follow the debridement mitigation guidelines established by nasa is afforded by the u. S. Government. There is no International Protocol yet on space debris. What we have is International Guidelines that nasa creates and the u. S. Government adopts and then those get adopted at the un and other places. The question is what are we doing to make sure the people adhere to those guidelines . Anyone can say they follow them but the question is how do you followup and make sure they actually are and how do you prove that theyre are not if thy are not. There guidelines have been developed by the United States and have been adopted by the United Nations. Yes, in fact to individual countries [inaudible] is that ideal . Yes, it is better that they sign on for not signon but a lot of countries shine on and then they dont fully adhere to those principles. One other thing and then i will recognize senator gardner. The department of commerce and tends to or has it taken over the Space Situational Awareness mission for civil and commercial entities. Do you support that and how would authorizing the office of space commerce to take over this function from dod be helpful . Couple of things. Right now you have the apartment a defense that is responsible for fighting and winning wars in space now with the space force and usbased command. The challenges we are havingd them at the combined Space Operations center and we are having them operate as though they are the faa for space. They are doing conjunction analysis and warning for all the commercial activities in space and doing it for all the International Activities in space and all those international and commercial folks that are using that facility and that capability they are not paying for it so we are providing basically global Space Situational Awareness of space and Traffic Management to the world for free. In order to relieve them of that duty we need to have, this is, think back to the 1950s. We had the department of defense responsible for air Traffic Control throughout the nation and it wasnt as crowded back then but there came a time in 1958 when president eisenhower said we are done with this because there were too many midair collisions. We need a civilian agency that can do this activity. We are now they are for space right now but we need to take the unclassified data from the combined Space Operations center we need to flow that through the department of commerce and we need to combine that data with commercial data. It is all about data and about quantity and quality of data. We need to take that data, combined it with commercial and International Data to create a single integrated space picture that can be shared with the world. By the way, the world needs to support us in that effort. If we are doing Space Situational Awareness the rest of the world is not and that creates a big problem. Is there broad consensus within the administration for this move . Yes, sir 100 . And its being done administratively, i understand. Well, when you say administratively right now if activities are being done by the department of defense. The challenge right now is the department of commerce under an executive order basically a space policy directive three from the president and the department of commerce should be picking up these missions but they havent been and they dont have the authorities provided by congress at this point nor dos they have the appropriations provided by congress and so we are kind of in limbo right now so so you need the appropriators to address this issue and hopefully late in the year or early next year and this needs to be a provision in the next authorization bill, is that correct. I would be very supportive of that. Thank you very much. Senator gardner. Thank you mr. Chairman. Thank you mr. Bridenstine for your service on the work you do for nasa and our aeroSpace Companies in colorado and beyond. And make sure we preserve americas leadership and innovation in science and in space and we know our adversaries are working diligently to undermine our leadership in our Space Programs and they continue to be the envy of the world and nations like china and others are trying to steal our ingenuity and displace u. S. Leadership. I would like to enter into the record a cnbc global cfo Council Article dated march 1, 2019 entitled one of five corporations a trend has stolen their ip within the last year. I would also like to enter up fall 2020 space article including space force advice commander. [audio difficulties] highlight concerns raised by lieutenant David Thompson regarding chinas interest may seek to invest in companies being squeezed by the covid19 pandemic. I would like to enter into the record september 15 entitled inclusive white house asked u. S. Agencies to detail all related funding which outlines a request by the office of management and Budget Institute understand how funding may aid china indi unintended ways. We know the tiny 90s actions are stealing intellectual property and we know that they are using their corporate social credits system in a worrisome way and many of the criteria of the system envisions the could be used require the transfer of technology or make it easier for chinese interest to steal American Intellectual property. A report from the commission on theft of intellectual american property indicates china steals up to 600 billion worth of American Intellectual property every year but that in perspective, every seal year china is stealing property from the United States with nearly three times the size of the entire gdp of the nation of portugal. That is threat enabled through chinas internet secure the law implement a back in 2017 which allows them to review Sensitive Company Information that puts ip and human rights equally at risk. Its not just this misguided law or chinese on the mid quest and without someone to step in and stop them china things they would get away with this kind of behavior. Administrator bridenstine, do agree china china has a Clear History. Mr. Garner, senator gardner, could you ask for three items to be admitted into the record . Without objection that will be done. Administrator bridenstine, do you agree china has a Clear History of stealing american electoral property . No question. On the reuters story that the chairman put into the record regarding ombs request to federal agencies and like to share quote which reads, Agency Effort told reuters that to ensure the u. S. Remain strong in a position of strength against nations like china omb has asked federal agencies for all funding which could aid china and you shared white house concern and belief we should be taking a hard look at how our efforts in the federal level could be helping china. Yes. Do you agree we should be concerned with potential chinese interest seeking to invest in u. S. Companies and what that can meet your Economic National Security . Yes. Given your answers to those questions do agree that make sense for nasa to consider Chinese Investment as part of its contracting process . Yes. I think the answer is absolutely 100 yes. Just so you know, we are grateful for your leadership on this but i can tell youre very passionate. I would also say how that is done really matters to nasa. What we have to do as an agency is make sure we dont put ourselves in the role of sofias or put ourselves in the role of the deferment of justice or the fbi. We have to be careful that we do the things that we are good at like getting to the moon and on to mars and we have to be careful about how 100 agreed with everything you decide but we are not really an investigative agency. We need to be careful about how we go about doing this. I want to make sure we are investigating china into aeroSpace Companies and making sure were treating nasa as its important to this issue as tiktok with Chinese Investments and concerns. I think our aerospace National Security face Space Command and nasa are equally important to give the attention to that which china as we do the tiktok with china. Administrator bridenstine, thank you. U. Mr. Chairman, thank you for your time. Thank you very much, senator gardner. There are no other senators in line and i have another question but i know a number of offices are Live Streaming and if members of the committee and then to ask questions theytt should let us know because if not, may be the last round of questioning. Mr. Administrator, lets talk about the enhanced upstage or the black b. The enhance [inaudible] will allow nasa to use or make full use ofn the sls and i am concerned the budget request defers funding to develop this and unnecessary is this and what suggestion do you have for the senate in the house . Yes, sir. To start because congress and the senate have fully funded all of our activities for the exploration just so you know those activities are underwayy and we are getting to the point now where we got key decision points or Critical Design review right in front of us. All of this to say that we are talking enhanced spirit yes. Some people call enhanced and some people call exploration but were talking the same thing. Good, i just want to make sure were talking about the same thing. To the extent we have the exploration of the enhanced upper stage that would be greatly beneficial to the agency and we can use it in that is important to note that it is also true that when we go to the moon by 2024 with artemis three we will go with what is called in and around cryogenic propulsion stage and that i cps is already a system that is in place that we can use will get us to the moon by 2024. When we think about what happened beyond that, depending on if the senate and house make it available to us we can certainly use the expirationma upper stage or enhanced upper stage. At this point we think that there are opportunities to use commercial vehicles potentially in the future but of course all options should be considered. Thank you. Senator udall is next. You got me there . We can hear you. Okay. Thank you, mr. Chairman for the recognition and let me welcome the administrator here. I remember having a good conversation with him when he came through. Good to see you. Satellite servicing and debris removal will become an increasingly important part of Space Operations as low earth orbit and other heavily populated orbits become increasingly congested by the small satellites. Last october i introduced Senate Resolution 386 and the resolution supporting improvements in Space Situational Awareness and advance of technology and calling for International Cooperation to address the increasing dangerous of space, debris. Do support the kind of improvements to and advancements in his Situational Awareness technology called for in my resolution. Yes, sir. Without question and the challenge we have as an agency er not as an agency but as a federal government is data. We need the ability to get as much information on the debris that is in lower earth orbit as close as possible to keep our mission safe. We need new, more and Better Technology and data. Appreciate that answer. How important is it to ensure International Cooperation on this issue and implement the 21 guidelines for space sustainability agreed to by the United Nations committee on peaceful uses of outer space . Without International Support we end up, you know, not getting the results that we are going to need so without question the United States of america is the preeminent space nation but others are very rapidly developing and deploying space assets. They are creating debris that needs to be dealt with. Very supportive of International Agreements that mitigate the debris and of course, International Agreements that enable us to see and respond to the debris as well. Thank you for that answer. New mexicos space industry is growing rapidly and companies such as urgent galactic, op aerospace called new mexico home and im glad to hear that nasa is beginning to partner with some of these commercial spaces companies as well as others. Beside using these commercial space entities to eventually take individuals to the International Space station and conduct other training for personnel is this an opportunity for nasa to increase other experiments and casts and conducted from new america, new mexico and if so, what experiments and testing would nasa conduct . Yes, sir. We do these activities throughout we call the Flight Opportunities Program which is resident in the Space Technology Mission Directorate at nasa and that Flight Opportunity program has already conducted, i think over 700 different experiments and Technology Demonstrations using commercial suborbital vehicles. Everything from vertical takeoff and landing and using rockets to the horizontal takeoff and landing using rockets but also highaltitude balloons and so weve done hundreds of these experiments and there are huge opportunities in front of us. The value is if youre trying to get access to microgravity there is really only a couple of ways to do it and one is a drop tower. You drop some things from the top of a building and youve got a second or two of microgravity. After that we have parabolic flight where you take an airplane and put it on a parabolic trajectory and you can get 2030 seconds of microgravity. After that you have to fly all the way to the International Space station which is, you know, tens of millions of dollars and of course very challenging and takes years of training, for example but i commercial suborbital capability that you just mentioned gives us a great opportunity to do experiments for five, ten minutes and microgravity which is the 20 or 30 seconds you get from parabolic flight. What does that mean . U. S. With things a good test so right now we been using it to prove that we can do 3d printing and microgravity which3d is very difficult but can be done we are proving that we can create Technology Capable of doing that. 3d printing is usually available when you do spaceflight because you want to take as few things. As possible but make things in space. We think about cryogenic management. How do fluids move in a microgravity kind of environment . We use these kinds of five, ten minute flights for those types of activities. Fluids are critically important to the spaceflight and different fluids operate very differently and microgravity and understanding that is necessary as we progress in our mission and not having to fly those experiments all the way to the International Space station is hugely valuable for the taxpayer of the United States of america. There are other experiments that we do. We are looking at, in fact, right now for the first time one of my initial initiatives as the nasa administrator was what about human payloads and a lot of these experiments are conducted by University Researchers or private institutions and some of them wanted human payloads. We now have an opportunity to accept human payloads and they would be commercial suborbital and scientists or researchers that can fly on these commercial vehicles funded by nasa. That is a hugees development we put forward and eventually we will use these vehicles to in fact, flight american astronauts as well for training and experiments and other capabilities. I really think senator udall there is a great future here with commercial suborbital vehicles. Er thank you, mr. Administrator for the excellent answer and good to see the work youre doing over there at nasa. Thank you, sir. I think the bipartisan sentiment expressed by senator udall is widely shared. Senator capito. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Administrator bryden stein, it is nice to see you again however remotely. I really enjoying your visit to West Virginia when you rename the center for West Virginians Catherine Johnson who passed away since we met and she was quite a pioneer. The 700 jobs across the state the nasa has been millions of dollars of economic economics for nasa which a Great Partnership alter state, particularly in the regions we were in and i would like to ask a quick question and its more on the appropriations side that you know, i support that nasa leveraging innovation and investmentt that you all bring about but it seems like nasas plan to develop a moon lander differs from the usual contract that nasa has taken an development of other grants and spacecraft. I wanted to talk about that and found it beneficial and how that rolls out. Yes, maam. Its crucially important question. When we think about the successes weve had with the commercialal crew program, for example, which we just saw we Just Launched our american astronauts on the commercial vehicle which was fantastic. The goal that we have in that activity as well as commercial resupply of the International Space station and the goal we have is ultimately for nasa to be one customer of many customers in a very robust commercial marketplace for human activities and lower earth orbit but also we want to have numerous suppliers that are competing against each other on cost and on innovation and on safety. We have achieved that with commercial resupply now, commercial group and we also want to start now commercial habitation so commercial space stations themselves so this is the progression. The question that we had to answer was given all the programs that nasa has had in its history if we are going to the moon as quickly as possiblef how do we want to organize our efforts and the decision we made is we would model this after commercial resupply and commercial group. He said we will partner with commercial industry to go sustainably to the moon with the intent that they get customers, maybe not initially but eventually, that are not nasa and where they are competing against each other on cost and innovation and onn safety. We could we can do that we can drive down costs and increase access and we can have sustainability at the moon which the Apollo Program never delivered on and that is ultimately our goal. Our goal is to figure out how do we have a program where we go to the moon and stay. That commercial capability is ultimately what we think is a big part of that success that we will see in the future. In the initial, in the phase youre in right now are you finding that there are private and commercial entities that all want to join the space and is there enough to provide for competition or is this something that may be our educational institutions and other businesses could be developing towards what are you finding ini that space . Right now maam, we had initially when we did this program to start we had five proposals in a number of those proposals had Large Capital investments behind the private sector already. I think there are lots of capabilities here already and we have selected three of those five proposals and of course we are grateful for the funding that we got from the house andth the senate for what we call the base time so now weve got three commercial lunar landers underdevelopment right now in the base time which ends in february of 2021. From that point in february we will make the determination whether or not there is one, two or even three of those companies that we believe can get to the moon as soon as 2024. I would say yes, maam we have had a lot of support from private industry for this activity. Good, good. I introduce with senator cinema the grant modernization act which included the authorization act and i thank you and i have talked about how the Space Grants Program really does advance people all across country. Have you had any stop and start during the covid era with this . Are you still processing the proposals on a timely fashion . As of right now we are okay but it will be more challenging as time goes on for sure. We will provide grants to universities for them to deliver on specific tasking. Of course, universities are having challenges delivering on that task the same way the nasa when we do things that are centers that if we have an outbreak at the center are people can go to work anymore than the people at the university can go to work. This is a nationwide challenge that we will have to deal with so there is a day in the future when we will have to make tough decisions of those decisions will be maybe we dont start a new project and we use the funding that we received for the continuation of the project that have fallen behind. Behind. And come back to the house and the senate to do the new start. I want to be clear there is an impact from covid. We have been successful as an agency Going Forward with those called essential but theyre not quite as high of an urgency as Mission Central functions. But there will be an impact for a lot of missions that are not in those two categories and a lot of those Early Technology Readiness Level capabilities that universities are involved in are going to see challenges. Thank you, i yield back. Thank you senator capital, senator peters. Thank you chairman and administrator, good to have you here and hear your testimony. Congress just recently passed bipartisan pros swift act i authored with senator gardner to mitigate the threats of geomagnetic storms and other space weather and if the covid19 pandemic has, taught us anything its that we need to be prepared fordisruptions that can upend our economy and in a significant way. And administrator i know you were the author of a similar bill when you were serving in the house and i know you can talk quite a bit about this topic and just like to get your sense of , your concern about impacts of space weather and what they can ask one everyday life and the significant threat they pose and why you authored it in the house and now that its passed into law what can we expect. Senator peters, you and senator gardner should be commended forleading on this issue. I was happy to supporting in the house when i was there but certainly without your leadership it would not have happened and working on it for all of these years from 20, finally getting it done i know that wasnt easy but this is going to have huge impacts for americas human spaceflight capability. Think about the Artemis Program and going to the moon. Were building a space station called gateway, its a small space station around the moon for in order to enable the reusability of human landers but we think about buzz aldrin and Neil Armstrong on the surface of the moon in the 19 69. Having been there longer than they were it would have been hit with a solar flare from the sun and that would have damaged them and in fact could have very well ended their lives early. But we didnt know that back then. Now we do know that so understanding the sun r, the solar winds, solar radiation. We think about coronal mass ejection and solarplayers. These are things that we have to understand very well if were going to have a sustainable presence beyond the van allen radiation and thats our goal. We want to explore space and the still is going to go a long way to enabling us to have the Early Warning that we need to be able to do the research necessary to even predict, to warn people based on the predictions, not just the detection of those kind of activities. As Ranking Member of the Armed Services emerging Practice Committee i was pleased to see in the memorandum of understanding announcing last week general raymond and the state force pl that had highlighted the importance of completing the survey of near Earth Objects. These hazardous objects impact for the earth as you know and pose a threat to our safety, purity and to our military. The authorization axis mmxix include an amendment by altered to direct the secretary of defense to support nasas work in the area and the importance of this is highlighted with the discovery of neil wise earlier this year which was previously unknown and likely came from the other star system. Can you talk briefly about the importance of completing the survey of hazardous objects, something americans consistently list as a top priority for nasa and how the department of defense can help with respect to the deployment of a new space telescope to better track these threats. Yes sir, againcritically important to the nation and the world in fact. Ive often said and others have said the dinosaurs have a Space Program. It didnt help them so we think back to 2013 with my first year in the house of representatives and we saw that incidents where we had this asteroid come in and explode over russia and while it didnt kill anybody that we know of, it resulted in over 1000 people owing to the hospital and broken windows and damaged buildings and that was an asteroid. I dont remember how big it was that it was on Something Like 30 meters baby. In diameter. So we think about that incident and then we think about how those incidents happen through history. There have been other incidents so in the early 1900s there was an incident that took out 800 square miles in russia for example. So yes, we need to be able to detect these objects area we need to make sure that we do have a near earth object Surveillance Mission. Partnering with the United States say force we are doing that already with the space surveillancetelescope down in australia. Nasa and have partnered with the time it was air force Space Command to put our own algorithms into their mission. Their mission of course is to detect nefarious activities in space. Our mission is to look for bowlines in space but we put our algorithms to their space telescope and its now in australia delivering great work to the air force course for space force and we as an agency get to protect bolide so thats a Great Partnership and extend that extendingthat partnership into new domains we would be supportive of that. I appreciate it. Thank you senator peters, senator thune. Administer bridenstine, welcome to the committee. You make your annual trek to south dakota . I did not, covid may have been in the way. We appreciate it. The global space economy has greatly expanded over the last 10 years meaning United States leadership is more critical now than ever before and as you know we have lots of discussions around here about allocation of tax dollars, how to get the best return , whether or not investment in areas make sense so that you describe how the american taxpayer dance to benefit from continued investment in Nasa Missions and romance and what does investment mean for job growth, logical advancements and Economic Prosperity in the United States . Ill start with a little history here when we think about the Apollo Program. A lot of people didnt know what was going to materialize from the Apollo Program but right now were hearing and the cameras are on and people are watching all over the country using directv or dish network or internet broadband from space. They might be listening to it on the radio with xm radio so these are communication capabilities, born from this little ctagency called nasa tied to that early nasa era. I think about how we navigate with gps and how that is fundamentallytransformed the American Economy. We work about precision agriculture important to south dakota. We are using space assets right now in order to send the earth and every part of the electromagnetic spectrum erand determination as to how can we increase yields while reducing waterusage by 25 percent . So thats going to be more of the world than ever before so its how we produce energy cleanly so that i plan, we can detect leaks early, supposedly sound for Greenhouse Gases so that energy companiesdont get fined by the epa. So nasa is playing a role there. The way we do Disaster Relief is dependent on a lot of these technologies as nasa has developed. We dont do Disaster Relief but we are developing technologies that have been commercialized that the government had benefits from. We thinkabout how we predict whether , how we understand climate and how exchanging and how National Security and defense have so many capabilities that nasa initiated have been utilized by the department of defense and vice versa. Go back in time it was Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles first launched for example alan shepard tospace. So i think the Technology Development programs have demonstrated that we really dont know the end of the day where all of it goes we know this, the return on investment is huge. Those are things that we really cant measure but i nasa a lot of administrators, i hear about tanks and velcro for example because of the Apollo Program and how those work i guess every nostalgic kind of capabilities thatwere promoted in the apollo era. But it goes so far beyond but we did an Economic Impact because i wanted to understand what is the impact and disregarding everything i just mention, just the direct Economic Impacts to the United States for the year 2019 was 54billion. And it was 312,000 jobs in the United States of america directly impacting from nasa investments and capabilities so all of that i think is tremendously valuable and i think if you want to get a very specific return on investment are to measure that. Weve been working remotely and i use this little camera thats in my cell phone. Camera was developed for a mars mission in the 1990s and then it was licensed by gnocchi out for example and put into a phone and all of a sudden everybody on the globe as these telephones with cameras in them that are used communicate all over the world thats been proven to be very valuable during the covid era so the return we get from nasa is overwhelming and well worth it. Maybe sometimes its missed by the public but we as an agency get about one third of one percent of the federal budget, less than half of one percent of the federal budget and the return on that has been just astonishing. In the end its a good list and one that probably i guess a lot of sometimes dont appreciate how much impact that had. Very quickly, did you share any updates on the development of optical mitigation technologies at nasa and the potential of these innovations to improve low earth orbit andbeyond . Optical medications, you get a High Frequency which means you can pack a lot more data you get very high data rates and Optical Communications, the spectrum is very narrow so youre able to prevent jamming in ways that you can do with Radio Communication and you can actually communicate from a lot further away with larger data rates so it focuses the energy specifically where you want the energy to go. When we can indicate from mars high after antenna, its getting the entire earth and a lot of the signal isnt hitting the earth at all which is just wasted energy but if you put into Optical Communications and narrowly focusing target not just the earth but you can target a very specific point on your. Maybe an area the size ofthe state of south dakota for example. Optical communications tremendously valuable impacts. Right now were partnering with the space force to do Laser Communication Technology demonstrator that they are going to fly on our and were going to use that kind of technology to communicate the great data and information we get in futuremissions to mars or other places in the solar system. Thanks mister chairman. Thank you senator thune, senator sinema. Thank you to our administrator for testifying today. Nasa partners with universities in those partnerships provide significant benefits to nasa and to the universities. All three the university of arizona, Arizona State university and Northern Arizona University Provides students with handson education and Research Opportunities thanks to state grants programs and other nasa partnerships. The university of arizona is a leader on that cyrus rex mission which will bring the first after examples earth and the Science Mission marks the first Time University went the safe nasa mission. Once the spacecraft launches in 2023 and the rise of the asteroid in 2030 the team will be the first time just to study an asteroid which is remarkably similar to explanatory core. In the past you testified to this committee that universityadmissions are more likely to be on schedule and under budget. I appreciate your support for these valuable University Partnerships but just last week i learned of some potential changes to the Near Earth Objects Surveillance Mission at the university of arizona that raises an important question. As you know in 2005 congress required nasa to discover 90 percent of near Earth Objects 140 meters in larger by 2020. The university of arizonas doctor amy mazer has been a leader on this issue for years and has led the precursor projects in this area. Three months ago nasa improved International Standard that took a major survey director for the Surveillance Mission last week without any consultation nasa decided to remove her from the survey director role and transfer the Mission Leadership in nasas jet propulsion laboratory. Can you explainthis decision to transfer the Mission Leadership . Thank you for the question senator sinema and i will say that i have been briefed on this. I can tell you that we are 100 percent committed to the neo Surveillance Mission and i can also tell you for a name mazer is money that nasa is highly regards and shes in the lead on this project and he will be on the lead in this project period. Thats going to happen. I will also say that i think the issue here was a communication ever. And i would also say that doctor zerbukin is head of the Science Commission at nasa and hes committed to omthis mission and making sure that we get this organizational structure right but i think i want to be careful what i say here but i think this issue has been resolved. And i think it has been resolved in a way that is very favorable to all parties. And just know that we want to make sure that we are getting this done right and ill make sure that doctor zerbukin is in the medications with your office regularly on this issue. I appreciate that very much, we have not heard any information since last week clarifying this change and as you can imagine we in arizona are interested in entering university of arizona doctor mazer and repaying this position and this very Important Mission and partnership withnasa. Im going to move on to my next question. Some nasa had said direct commissions need to be let out of nasa and not universities. Thats not a requirement and appears to be inconsistent with the evidence that University Led missions have proven to be costeffective. And you talk about your position to should direct admissions be let out of nasa center or is university . I think theres a lot of opportunities to have these missions led by university of the two you highlighted are perfect examples of missions that have been successful from universities and these are not small missions. Were talking about osiris rex which for the first time, weve never been able to orbit and objects like osiris rex is not working. Its an asteroid in the space on the new and were going to do for the first time in American History in october, were going to go down and grab the material from benny for the First Time Ever to bring that back to her. So an Asteroid Return Mission and that mission of course is led by the university of arizona area and of course you mentioned psyche which is an Asteroid Belt on the other side of mars in front of jupiter but a huge steel ball that is likely to be a planetary core that came apart at some point. Weve never been able to study a planetary core before and now were going to be able to do it and is led by Arizona State university. As these two missions i think are perfect examples of what can happen when you havethe university lead. And i know youre very well aware that and youre a champion on it but wait when the universityleads , you get the scientists and engineers that are sitting sidebyside and making determinations so nasa comes in and we say heres a budget and heres the schedule, what can you do smr tthe universities propose and other nonprofits kind of Research Institutes propose, when nasa selects a University Scientists and engineers and they are forced to make trays early in the process and because of those trades there able to keep schedule and there able to heat budget so the engineer says were not going to be able to achieve this, what if we do this instead and the scientists can say that will result in our ability to collect this science and said that science and evaluate this way instead of that way and those trades made early in the process result in schedule and budget actually being maintained and even better is that students get involved. So graduate students, even undergraduate students so its really government , academia and its students that come together, make it happen and he cost and schedule and then you have students that are graduating with handson experience that is tremendously valuable for our agency and our partners that help us develop capabilities. So im a huge advocate of enabling universities as much as possible. I appreciate that, thank you administrator bridenstine and thank you administrator. Senator sullivan isnext. Thank you mister chairman, can you hear me . Okay, great. Thank you mister chairman and administrator bridenstine, thank you for your testimony. One of the things you and i have talked about this quite a lot nasas three inspiring americans, similarly Young Americans and with that 50th anniversary of the Apollo Mission last year, i think which had a lot of inspirational moments, i think you read this book, you and i have thought aboutthis , the american moonshot is a great book by douglas rackley. The Apollo Missions, i actually think that with the work youre doing right now, the Artemis Program, the work that other agencies, not other agencies but Companies Like ace x and others are doing, its an incredible moment of the next generation to be inspired. Young americans to work for you, to get involved in this mission, to get involved in the vision. You were talking to senator sinema about your collaboration with university. Ive raised the issue of the movie marsh in a couple of times, one of my favorite movies in part is it so inspiring for youngpeople. And you tell me a little bit more detail what you are doing kind of really to inspire the next generation of americans, Young Americans who we can rely on for their science and technology, expertise to really get them not only involved but leading on the next exciting phases of nasas mission. Yes sir. So ill tell you the biggest thing we can do as an agency to inspire the next generation that you talk about is we have to do stunning achievements and as you identify thats what the american moonshot was all about in the 1960s thats what the Artemis Program is all about today so when we think back to the 1960s, if you walk around people nasa today and ask them what made you get involved in the space business, the ones who are old enough will tell you that they can tell you exactly where they were when Neil Armstrong and buzz aldrin were walking on the moon and of course we get five moon mission that, every single one of them was impressive and inspiring and that document generation inspired to do space. Ill tell you, my generation were inspired by the Space Shuttle. I remember the first Space Shuttle launch. I was in kindergarten and then we think about some of the setbacks that we saw with the shuttle. The challenger and columbia and my generation, we remember where we werewhen those events happen. Sorry to interrupt but can i ask you what is nasa going now to help get the word out . Are you going to campuses, are you recruiting, are you collaborating with hollywood . What are you doing right now to actively get, because i think we are at this moment. Very exciting and i think that the young people that i talk to see this as a great opportunity what are you doing exactly with him specifics to reach out, make them understand and really get to a point where we can inspire a next generation of americans to lead on these really important issues and of course we had all kinds of knockoff effects that are positive forour country, our society like the Apollo Missions have. Yes sir. We invest e through the science Mission Directorate into whats called robotics which gets young people involved in robotic capabilities in the course our agency is filled with people who are involved in first robotics when they were in high schoolor even before. Your engaging universities from grants and moon rat opportunities. Core for example, these are all things that enable us to reach into those younger volts and share with them what were doing but also get an engaged directly engage in the missions that we do. And of Course Contracting with universities throughout the United States to do some itof these big missions is actually very vague as well. We started whats called the Lunar Surface Innovation Initiative where we partnered with now i think its about 130 institutions across the United States using the Johns Hopkins applied physics laboratory. They are kind of the integrator of the program where their bringing all of these institutions across the United States to put a lot of universities to create things like service our own and mitigation on the moon and how were going to maneuver robe on the moon, the side of things uvarea habitation on the moon. So how are going to use the resources of the moon tolive and work for long period of time so were engaging young people across the United States through those different programs. Then of course we even have programs that reach into elementary and junior high schools through the office of stem engagement at nasa. So were doing what we can. You mentioned hollywood. [overlapping conversation] i think theres an opportunity here to inspire. Theres been great moviesthat have that ability. So are you partnering with them or othermedia types that can get the word out . Absolutely. Were creating a new program called private Astronaut Missions and where working every day to make sure that rypeople who are everyday people that want to go to space and do things that we are making Space Available to them. Those private Astronaut Missions are going to come with a price tag. Alwere not flying people to space for free but certainly theres a lot of interest there from hollywood and others so were going to leverage all of that capability. Thank you senator. Mister chairman i appreciate it and if theres any other issues you want, is to work on you with that involves this issue of inspiring the next generation of americans with the work that youre doing, let us know. I think its a bipartisan issue here in the senate but a lot of us want to get behind so keep up the good work. Thank you sir and count on it, we will. Continued bipartisan enthusiasm about the subject matter. Senator blumenthal. Thank you mister chairman and youre right that there is bipartisan enthusiasm and im pleased arto be a supporter and a very passionate supporter of state expiration, my recollection perhaps reflecting my age about the first Space Exploration by man was sputnik which was a sign of american potential failure and then of course a great recovery by this country, not without its mishaps and opticals but very very inspiring in an and space is always inspiring. My fear is that the moment that a lot of young potential scientists and explorers may be seeing right now is their dad being laid off from an Aerospace Company or contracting coronavirus. On earth here we have a pandemic and im concerned about the effect of that pendant on our aerospace industry, about potentially losing a whole class of really career scientists. And losing companies. Are struggling. I see that in my state of connecticut. And in particular in the area of paradox, i note that the nasa investments in aeronautics is just three percent. Of the total budget. I wonder whether you think that sufficient given the important impacts of paradox not only on scientific developments but also white honestly on jobs and economic progress, connecticut is known as at least we know ourselves as the aerospace alley. We are very proud of our role in paradox and aerospace and i like to know whether you think that that budget should beincreased. I think the a lot has changed in our country as you have said anything about the coronavirus pandemic really think about the challenges with max eight. Rohas had a devastating effect on aeronautics in general. I do believe that at this point in American History now is not the time to rest on our laurels and i think his room for Additional Support that we are going to need. Thisis a huge export for our country. Which as you identified creates tons of jobs and it offsets the trade deficit that we have around the world and its significant way. We saw when we had its challenges with max eight it impacted the gdp by about half a percent. Thats a huge impact because of aeronautics. So i think the lesson taken from that is that if we were to make the right investments earlier, senator cantwell asked me about trust bracelet, thats one investment that would be tremendously valuable. But i would also say and this might be of interest to connecticut, we need small core engines using advanced materials, higher pressure temperature capabilities area because what we need out of our engines are higher bypass ratios for more fuel efficiency, your Carbon Emissions. Those are investments that we are investing it in this budget. I can also say as we go forward, we think about years in the future, it would be that there are very few investments i can think of that would have a bigger impact American Economy and sustaining our leadershipin aeronautics. So why not invest more, only three percent of your budget. I think we have good investment for this budget for where we are right now but i think when as years go by this is going to be an area were going to have to consider even more. Will you commit to a larger investment given that we are in, conflict withother nations. I can commit to you i will work towards that end. Let me ask about a different area. The Space Program, as you know, on august 31 the nasa office of Inspector General notified the congress of an impending. Examining nasas development of the next generation spacesuits for the Lunar Mission and future Space Exploration. I have concerns about the issues with the current Acquisition Strategy for next generation spacesuits and potential effect that it could have on companies in connecticut. As you well know connecticut is deeply involved in spacesuits development and production. Should we be concerned that there are technical and schedule issues with the next generation spacesuits and what are you doing aboutthat . The key i think on the spacesuit issue is when we would go to the moon as you know entirely different spacesuit because youve got to be able to walk, the spacesuit we use on the moon is different than the spacesuit we used to do on the International Space station so what nasa is doing rapidly right now is developing that capability and for the moon landing for artemis three were going to be developing that internally but were doing it with an intense and forethought to make sure that what we want to see in the future is all of the production capabilities of these spacesuits be transferred to the commercial sector and i think that follows along with our goal, when you talk about the human landing system being developed commercially we want spacesuits developed commercially as well. So were moving towards that very rapidly. If there are specific things that we can work on together im happy to. I would like to work with you but may i suggest engaging the industry might be useful as well. Thank you senator blumenthal. Senator blunt. Thank you mister chairman, thank you administrator bridenstine. I for your knowledge, you mentioned a while ago and brought back a lot of memories, my mom was on the breakfast table and that was a big deal for us and im glad you also mentioned norad because i want to talk about that too, women and minorities in research but of course nasa has several programs to support spacesuit research and help recruit and retain students from underrepresented populations. As you know nasa asked for is a joint Program Designed to allow more states like nevada to participate in space and Aeronautics Research area Minority University Research Education process, the one that you mentioned there are Large Research grants to minority institutions with the goal of diversifying nasas workforce as well as a larger stem workforce and im happy to know for the first time in our history we were selected for a threeyear scholarship to the new york phone, alexandria washington as as you are announcing the students, to develop a robotics mobile platform that can hurt you to trade the kind youre going to find perhaps on the moon and places humans cannot yet reach but despite the success of nasa, explore europe and either other Senate Education programs , but of its most recent budget request proposal terminated nasas offer and proposed traffic cuts to funding. So administrator bridenstine, youre so passionate about these programs, can you describe your familiarity with work export is doing and the importance of increasing our diversity and buying different research. Yes maam, ill say that the folks at nasa that are involved in the Movement Program are doing amazing work and of course it does in fact a dividends area it is also true that the budget request does is it focuses on the Mission Directorate and what theyre trying to see as National Goals and it really focuses on those activities that will help us achieve those National Goals. I will be clear, if the senate funds as the senate has in past years the office of stan engagement , were going to move forward and were going to execute and those programs are going to serve nasa very well. But i also. Would you like to see us do that and see our president supportthat . Out so you defend dramatically valuable. I would also tell you i think there are other opportunities to fund those types of programs that would be more in alignment with nasas mission. And thats really where the budget is focused. Would you share some of those programs with us , for example, when we think about contracting with universities, we initiated a Program Within the aeronauticsMission Directorate for example. Is a University Leadership initiative where aeronautics Mission Directorate is partnering directly with minority universities to engage them in aeronautics activities include Unmanned Aerial Systems and things like that. That have a direct impact to nasas mission. We have other programs that we are doing through the science Mission Directorate as it relates to the locks. Were going to the surface of the moon and other things so i think were all committed to achieving what you have highlighted is so important which is reading that diversity for the workforce and creating that diversity forstudents. For opportunities. I think, i can very clearly say that you are committed to that agenda. I am concerned that your time this whole thing into a one enterprise solution so moving forward i would really like to see, know how you plan to keep exports separately to research programs, not keeping it mission pulling it into other programs and you know, speaking about our project and if you scale it down, how are we going to then inspire those future generations, are space ambitions mars, going to other places. If we dont invest in the next generation of nasa. Yes maam, i think we are 100 percent committed to investing in that next generation and doing those really amazing stunning achievements like Artemis Program where youre going to take not just the next man but the first woman to the surface of the moon and i can tell you, nobody is more excited than for that then my 12yearold daughter. So i think these are the kinds of things that we are focused on and we want to move out on and certainly engaging all along the way, reps and other institutions that encourage that next generation get involved in the stemfields. I appreciate your service. I feel that. Senator rosen v, senator scott. Thank you chairman. Thank you for hosting us and i want to thank chairman worker for his commitment to nasa Space Exploration. You have a lot of years appear and ive watched over rthe years is you had a significant commitment and i know its important to your knhome state so i for that. As you know, nasa is pretty important in florida as it is in mississippi and a few other states. The, i became governor back in and and the space industry is in bad shape area we got i think we lost over 7000 jobs in 2009 with the obama cuts when they stopped mans flight. But since then the federal government has been a good partner. We put up a lot of money every year to get Space Exploration and bring it back and now its unbelievable whats going on and i want to thank nasa or your commitment to using the private sector do youthink. I think it was a big deal this summer to see space x launch and though it is exciting to be there sure are 12yearold daughters excited. Myyearold grandson is committed to be the first man on mars. These torn between that and being a paratrooper of the policeman. D the jobs that are not dangerous and he told me its not dangerous to go to space anymore. That means were doing a good job. W youve created i think what youve done is youve done a good job with creating seexcitement for these young people and i think thats going to pay off not just for the space industry but just for Stem Education so thanks for doing that. So what do you need that you dont have to continue the goal that you have and the president has an chairman worker has to continue to explore space and ntto do it in a responsible manner . I think the biggest thing for the state of florida and i want to say that the state of florida has benefited greatly when you were governor with the establishment of space florida and all those commercial activities and your leadership on that and now the Kennedy Space center in Cape Canaveral being this multiuser spaceport so the nation there and the execution has been very helpful to us as an agency and were grateful forthat. A couple of things that i think are important to note. We all know that the International Spacestation is going to come to the end of its life at some point. Cannot last forever of course its been in november were celebrating 20 years of a continually occupied space station. Thats a long time. And amazing. We need to start making the investments for what comes next and that what comes next is the commercialization of low earth orbit. As youve seen with uncommercial resupply. Wevenow done commercial group launching american astronauts from the space coast in florida. The next big thing is commercial space station. All those resupplymissions and commercial Crew Missions need a place to go. And if the International Space station comes to the end of its life and we dont have commercial space stations, theres going to be a lot of rockets that are going to get launched and i think its important that we fund our efforts as an agency for those commercial space stations. We put that in the budget request in years past and it hasnt gotten funded. Thats critically important for the country. China is building their own what they call the chinese International Space station. Theyre working hard to ttattract our International Partners which we have helped build their capacity and now theyre going to potentially take that to china. Were working to prevent that from happening but at the same time its important for us to think about the architecture were on. Commercial crew, commercial habitat and we need to change the paradigm with launch vehicles, change the paradigm for habitation in space and then apply what weve learned within those programs to commercial access on the moon. Were happy and excited that in november of next year were going to launch the most powerful rocket thats ever been built, currently being tested and were going to get that rocket. Which stated that . I wonder which state. Without mississippi we cant get that rocket to florida so its and all of the above strategy and certainly we are excited about wanting that next year so you asked what we need and im making the best case i can that we need to start thinking about what happens next in low earth orbit. I know the chairman will be supportive of trying to do Space Exploration but let me finish by thanking you, youve been a real partner in the Visitor Center and i think youve done an unbelievable job, exciting families about what goes on in space so thank you for being a partner. I know they work really hard to try to do a great job and excite kids to want to explore space so thank you for what youre doing. Its an amazing place. Thank you senator scott and thank you for that shout out for the space center in mississippi. Administrator bridenstine, you had a bit of a rocky confirmation process for this committee. I dont remember. Well i do and it may i say you won over a number of skeptics and i think the bipartisan support for the job youre doing ohas been indicated very profoundly today and i appreciate the job youredoing. The drink tank has been mentioned. Let me just say that every time you come on the screen today you have been an advertisement for mountain dew and i think pepsicola needs to make a higreat contribution to nasa based on all of the publicity that you given them today. That said, the hearing record will remain open for two weeks. During this time, senators are asked to submit any questions for the record. Harvesting with witness is requested to submit his written answers to the committee as soon aspossible. And with that we conclude the hearing and express our appreciation to administrator bridenstine. Thank you chairman. I will come and shakehands but i appreciate. We look forward to getting down to. We will make sure youre invited for sure. Will get you rosie area. 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