and thank you for the honor to be here today. in my capacity as chairman of the national space counsel which i believe is a momentous occasion in the history of american space exploration. to all of the extraordinary leaders who are gathered with us today to members of congress and the pioneers of space exploration who are gathered here, we thank you, and we thank you for all you've done to serve our nation and expand the horizons of human knowledge and advance american leadership in outer space. mr. president, in signing this space policy directive you are ensuring that america will lead in space once again. to guide this new era of american space leadership president trump has relaunched the national space council and at the inaugural meeting in october we unanimously approved to instruct nasa to return