our part to reach out beyond our comfort zone, listen to others, lower the temperature, and find some common ground." next nasa straight oher jim, testifies on changes at the agency due to the coronavirus pandemic. this is an hour and 40 minutes. ziverbs is it would be helpful if the administrator would highlight how nasa is implements lessons learned from commercial crew development. in november of last year this committee passed the nasa authorization act demonstrating strong support. legislation strongly supported nasa's key science priorities, aeronautics research, plan terry exploration, and other initiatives. today the administrator can provide an update on these missions and describe any major impacts on cost, schedule or operations caused by the pandemic. nascar plays an important role in america's whole of government approach to securing the space do name. great power competition in space is a reality. china's space ambitions are well-known and the communist party has devoted resources to resources to military and space programs. nasa signed a memorandum of understanding with the newly created space force to bolster collaboration on standards and best practices for space operations, scientific research and plan terry defense. the administrator may want to comment on the memorandum of understanding and where he cease opportunities for collaboration with the space force. even with the year's successes, program vulnerabilities remain. as the program progresses, we hould remain vigilant to protect partnerships, particularly those built around the international space station nd low orbit research. things like robotic mars missions should continue making ogress, maintaining focus on artemus and other missions require funding from congress. i look forward to the conversation with the administrator and turn to the ranking member for her remarks. >> thank you, mr. chairman, and thank you for the i beg your pardon leadership on the nasa re-authorization bill. am pleased to join you nasa's recent economic impact analysis shows in 2019, the agency generated more than $64 billion in outpresident. nasa and the space industry, important in the state of washington where space activities account for $1. billion of the economy. thousands of washington jobs are dependent on this growing space industry. i say there is a reason we have the space needle. 2020 was a significant year for nasa. for the first time in nine years nasa astronauts launched to space from u.s. soil. 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 a bigger year. two commercial providers will begin regularly carrying astronauts to the space station. 2021 will see the first launch of nasa's space launch system which will return astronauts to 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 step on the surface of the moon for the first time in 40 years. i am enthusiastic about the artemus program which will put the first woman on the moon. we need more than:that women's first step. we need women and minority's to be represented at every level of the program. i look forward to working with the chairman on all areas. given the new rockets and spacecraft sfrauts will fly over the next decade, it is imperative they remain committed to safety. it must remain a top priority. for that to happen, they all must have insight into the design and testing of new spacecraft. a major safety issue for nasa the threat of orbital debris. last week the space station was forced to maneuver away from a piece of space debris. in february the committee held a hearing. i called for increased investment in mapping of debris and improved space situational awareness. mr. chairman, i know you are also committed to addressing this threat and i look forward to work with you on that issue. while the programs are often in the spotlight, the other missions and research are also critical to the country. nasa satellites provide day to measure fires as they burn. i want to highlight nasa's space grant program. a consortium at the university of washington is doing work to engage high school students and undergraduates in these areas of research and study, chie think helps us get the next generation of work force. the covid-19 pick peck has inpacted many nasa programs as well as the people who support them, whether they are employees, contractors or researchers. i look forward to hearing how this committee might work with nasa to keep the program on track while keeping people employed. this is a challenge, but obviously we want to keep moving ahead. we look forward to your comments and testimony, administrator. thank you for being here. again, mr. chairman, thank you for holding this important hearing. >> i think i heard the state of washington mentioned several mes in the senator's opening statement. clearly i should have mentioned in my opening statement the important role of the state of mississippi in all of the activities that we have planned, particularly the space center in hancock county, mississippi. so another this point, administrator, we have your prepared statement consists of seven pages in small type. well enter that into the record at this point, and you are recognized for five minutes or so to summarize your statement. >> thank you chairman and ranking member. it is an honor to be here. 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. we call them mission essential functions of nasa. we needed that personal protective equipment. we needed the ability to make sure that our crews could socially distance and do all of the things necessary to be safe. the cares act was really a part of that. we thank you for that. so nasa is really up to some really amazing things. the two of you highlighted them very well. low earth orbit we are commercializing rapidly. we have been under way with commercial resupply now for a number of years. now we are moving forward with commercial crew, which we are all very excited about. demo two is complete. that was a test flight here at the end of the october. we are going to launch co-2 one. we are going to have a full complement of four astronaut including one international partner from japan. in is a very exciting time for the agency as we move rapidly to commercialize space. it is not just about commercial resupply and commercial crew. bealso want commercial space stations themselves eventually. the international space station has been an amazing asset for the united states. it still is and will be for years to come. but we all know a day is going to come when it comes to the end of its useful life. when that happens, we need to have funded the resources necessary to commercialize low earth orbit for habitation. we want to make sure that in the united states and with your help we can ensure that we have no gap in low earth orbit. we think about apollo, as much as we loved it, it came to an end. we had a gap of about eight years before space shuttle. when that retired, we had another gap of eight years before commercial crew. we want to make sure there is another gap to low earth orbit. as both of you have identified what, is happening in low earth orbit is his awesome as it is, pails in comparison when we land the first woman and the next man on the moon for the artemus program. we are going to the moon for a lot of important reasons, but the chief reason 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 part nerts. this is about american leadership. of course what we just saw in fact yesterday, japan announced it's biggest budget for its space agency in his history. in fact, it was a 50% increase over the previous year. that is a massive increase for a nation like japan. they are focusing it on the artemus program. they are focused on supporting us as we lead the world to the moon. i will say that that is not unique though. we have seen budgets coming from europe that are also increasing commensurate with the artemus program and nasa's budget. a lot of exciting things in the future. of course i am grateful to you, chairman, and ranking member, for the continued bipartisan support for these important missions for our country. with that, sir, i will yield back whatever time i have remaining and certainly open to any questions. >> well, thank you very much. ou recently announced that the artemus one mission will take place at the end of november of next year. part of the role of my home tate of mississippi is the testing space launch system rocket engine. how is the green run testing progressing, and do you have a target date for the full duration hot fire test? >> yes, sir. so the green run testing is progressing very well. this is the core stage of the f.l.s. rocket. it is proving itself to be an extremely capable system. we still have a good bit of testing in front of us, including the full green run where we fire all four rf-25 engines at the same time. that is going to be an amazing sight to see. likely to happen in november. so we are moving rapidly towards that. we have had some challenges, of course, with some hurricanes. we have had some other challenges with covid. but we have also had some successes. so we are moving forward. we think that the green run test will be done in november, early november, and we also believe that this sets us up for the first launch of the s.o.s. system with an orion crew capsule in november of 2021. we are moving rapidly towards that. >> do you think we are still on track to meet that november 2021 date? >> as of right now, yes, sir, we are. there are challenges for sure, and depending on how covid affects us in the months ahead, it could be more challenging. but i will say because this is a mission that is so unique, we do have margin in the schedule. we have reserve in the schedule and in the cost. nasa does that for all of its missions. as of this point we have not determined that we need to move off of the november date of next year. >> well, i have been very impressed with how nasa has moved forward on any number of target dates. let me ask you about the continuing resolution. we are discussing a continuing esolution this week. obviously that is never ideal, but the covid-19 pandemic pretty much dictated that. this is a brief c.r. it doesn't carry on into next ear. you have spoken about the oblem of a long-term continuing resolution. full, parise discuss the broader impacts, if we can't get our job done for november and december, what that would mean for your programs? >> the hardest part right now is that human landing system. that human landing system is right now what we are not funded to develop in its entirety. we are funded through what we call the base period. we have got the resources to go through basically february of 2021. and so between now and february f 2021, i think we are ok. but if we get to february of 2021 without an appropriation, that is going to put the brakes on our ability to achieve a moon landing by as early as 2024. it is important to get these appropriations. i will also tell you the sooner we get the appropriations, the higher the probability of success. we are very grateful. i know that the house and the senate are moving towards a c.r. rather than a shut-down. we are very grateful for that, and i speak for the entire nasa work force 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 proceedings. what about the authorization bill? how important is it to pass an updated authorization bill? >> so in my view, very important. i was an authorizer in the house of representatives, and i can tell you what the authorization bill enenables me to do as administrator, allows me to demonstrate bipartisan support that is lasting. appropriation bills are one year in nature and give us what we need to fund the programs. but an authorization bill -- this is a fundamental question i get everywhere i go as a nasa administrator. they ask how do you ensure this program doesn't get canceled. nasa has had a history of getting programs developed and then canceled. the nswer is we need authorization that codifies the fact that we have broad national support. i think we are there, but putting that into law really would be meaningful for the agency. > thank you very much. cantwell? >> thank you, mr. chairman. one the things we hear a lot about as we change and innovate is the still level of the work fors in stem. we work very hard on stem education in the state of washington and want to work on it from a national perspective. i want to hear your thoughts on what else we need to be doing? what does that skill gap show? and the x-plane flight. one of the things we are interested in is composites and continuing to the development of come posit manufacturing. we want to understand what you think we should be doing on that kind of technology for the future as well? >> very good questions. will 2011 you the transonic truss braced wing has me excited about the future of aviation. when but 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. this is a major export for the country, and we have been leading here for so many generations. of course we had the challenge with the max-8. we have had the challenge now with covid. and when we think about aeronautics, it is kind of -- right now it is being stressed significantly. but i think we have to as a nation take this opportunity and lead. and when i see lead. hat transonic tyrus braced wing is the key. we are talking about the aspect ratio of a wing, making it longer and thinner. the big thing that does is it reduces induced drag, which is the drag you get from the lift created by the aircraft. basically it spreads out the amount of downward thrust you get from the wing. it does increase what we call pair sitic drag from the wing, is hat parasitic drag reduced. you get a much more efficient aircraft. it drivers down the amount of fuel you have to use. it drives down the amount of carbon emissions and the cost to run. the challenge with that high aspect ratio wing, the challenge with that is it becomes long and thin, and so it doesn't have the structure to hold up a large body aircraft. i am a huge proponent of that. we have been advocating for that inside not just the agency, but inside the administration in general, and we are getting some tracks on it. any support that you can rovide would be fantastic. >> so in this case, this is a come posit issue, and so we need more come posit r and d and more understanding on the come posit side? >> yes. this is again very important. when it comes to stem, we need that next generation work force , and so we have 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 and do these stunning missions like landing the first woman on the moon and those kind of activities. we are also very involved at the mission direct rate level like funding robotics, which is a capability that gets high school kids and younger involved in robotics. o we do those things, direct impact to nasa missions. if you look at robotics on mars and robotics throughout the solar system with satellites and orbitters on other planets. there is a lot that nasa does and we need to continue to do for stem. >> i don't know what it is about material science, but we have been able to attract more women. structural engineering may not have been something that initially appealed to them. we are having more success on the material science side. i don't know if that is a american league of chemical engineer and other things, but i think we should figure out how to put this challenge, as you said, to the youngest of americans as they are thinking about these issues. i don't know why this isn't a marriage of ideas given that you are talking about, again, fuel efficiency, american jobs, leadership, all of these things that would come from this. it is as exciting as the other missions, too. so thank you. >> yes, ma'am. >> administrator, the ranking member mentioned space debris, so let me -- let's drill down on that just a little built. >> is the frequency were avoidance maneuvers increasing? ust a short while ago nasa maneuvered the space station to avoid a pistons of space debris. that has happened three times this year. is that increasing? >> yes, sir. >> this year we have maneuvered the space station three times in or the to avoid orbital debris. that has not happened since 2015. now in this year we have done it three times. >> so is that just a coincidence? >> i don't think this is a coincidence. i will also say in the last two weeks, or maybe three weeks at this point, we have had three potential conjunctions that made us very nervous. that was in the last two or three weeks. apart from the maneuver that we actually had to make. >> close calls? >> yes, sir. >> we knew about them, but it was far enough away that you didn't have to maneuver? >> yes, sir. we monitored them very closely, and we made a determination that it doesn't require a maneuver. >> what is the source of this debris? >> there is a lot of reasons for it. there is a lot of commercial activity in space right now, which we fully support. we have got to be able to use space for all of its benefits for humanity. and a lot of that commercial activity is launching low earth orbit remote sensing sattelites, communication satellites. low earth orbit is tremendously valuable for communications because it is low latency. the types of signals that you can use and the standards that you use are more like a cell phone technology, whereas when you think about geostationary orbit far from earth, you have to use different protocols. low earth orbit is where all these constellations want to be. the challenge is we don't have as a nation or even as a world a robust architecture for how we are going to integrate all of these cain acts into this small space. it is becoming more and more of a problem. >> it is not a small space, but it is a finite space? >> it is. the challenge is the robabilities of impact are meshed -- base on the data that we receive, the probabilities of impact are measured in one in a thousand chance bses,, one in five thousand chances, one in 10,000 chances. the space agency, we talk those probabilities and say ok, we need to maneuver. >> these functioning objects or are they junk? >> both. >> when i think of debris, i think of something left over from something in the past? >> yes, sir. this object we had to maneuver for just a few days ago is unidentified. we don't know what it is. we don't know where it came from. it is not something that is operated. it is junk. it is literally junk in space. there are also satellites that have become debris because they just came to the end of their useful life, the end of their useful lives, and they don't de-orbit themselves. they will over a number of years, but they are still there now. a lot n we also have more activity from our international friends, if you will, and they don't ecessarily all fall the did he mitigation guidelines supported by nasa and the u.s. government. >> so there is no international protocol yet on space debris? >> what we have is international guidelines, but nasa creates, the u.s. adopts, and then those get adopted at the u.n. and other places. the question is what are we doing to make sure that people adhere to those guidelines? anybody can say they follow them, but the question is how do you follow up and make sure that they actually are? and how do you prove they are not if they are not? >> so there are guidelines that have been developed by the united states and have been adopted by the united nations? >> yes. >> do individual countries, then they just sign on? >> yes. >> is that ideal? >> well, it is better that they sign on than not sign on. but a lot of countries sign on, but then they don't fully adhere to those principles. >> one other thing, and then i will recognize senator gardner. the department of commerce has taken over the spares awareness commission for civil and commercial entities. do you support that and how would authorizing the office of space commerce to take over this function from d.o.d. be helpful? >> a couple of things. right now you have the department of defense that is responsible for fighting and winning space now with space force and u.s. command. the challenge is we are having them at the combined space -- at the combined space operations center, we are having them operate as though they are f.a.a. space. they are doing the conjunction analysis and warning for all the commercial activities in space. they are doing it for all the international activities in space. all of those international and commercial folks that are using that facility, that capability, they are not paying for it. so we are providing basically global space situational awareness and space traffic management to the world for free. in order to relieve them of that duty -- thick about the 1950's. we had the department of defense responsible for air traffic control throughout the nation. now it wasn't as crowded back then, but there came a time in 1958 when president isenhour said we are done with this -- when president eisenhower said we are done with this. we need a civilian activity to do this. we are there for space right now. we need to take the unclassified data from the combined space operations center. we need to flow that to the department of commerce, and we need to combine that data with commercial data. it is all about data. it is about quantity and quality of data. we need to take that data and combine it with commercial and international data to create a single integrated space picture that can be shared with the world. and by the way, the world needs to support us this that effort. if we are doing space situational awareness and traffic management and the rest of the world is not, that creates a big problem. >> is there broad consensus in the administration for this move? >> yes, sir, 100%. >> and it is being done straightively, i understand? >> when you see administratively, right now these activities are being done by the department of defense. the challenge right now is the department of commerce under an executive order, basically state policy directive three from the president, the department of commerce should be picking up these missions. but they don't halftime authorities provided by con gress at this point nor do they have the appropriations provided by congress. we are in limbo right now. >> so you need the appropriators to address this the e and hopefully late in 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, and thank you administrator for your service and all the work that you do for nasa and our air space comes in colorado and beyond. it is imperative that we preserve america's innovation in science and space. we know our adversarieses are working diligently to undermine our leadership. our space program continues to be the envy of the world. nations like china and others trying to steal our ingenuity and display u.s. leadership. mr. chairman i would like to enter into the record a cnwc global article dated march 1, 2019 entitled one in five corporations say china has stolen their i.p. within the last year. i would also like to enter a may 12, 2020 space news articles entitled, space force vials commander. china can't be allowed to buy bankrupt u.s. space companies. it is regarding how china may seek to invest in companies squeezed by the pandemic. and another article entitled exclusive white house asks u.s. agencies to detail all planned or related funding to understand how funding may be aiding china in unintended ways. we know that chinese actors are stealing intellectual property from american businesses. they are using their credit system in a worrisome way and many of the criteria envision it could be used to require the transition of technology or make it easier for china to steal american select perpetual property. a report estimates that china eals up to $600 billion of american select perpetual property every year. to put that in perspective, every single year china is stealing property from the united states worth nearly three times the sites of the portugal..p. of that is through china's security law implefmented back in 2017, which allows them to review sensitive company information that puts i.p. and human rights at risk. it is not just a misguided law or china's unyielding question to upend freedoms around the globe without others step negligence to stop them. administrator, do you agree that -- >> senator gardner, you asked for three items to be admitted into the record. without objection that will be done. now ask your question. >> administrator, do you agree that china has a clear history of stealing american intellectual property? >> there is no question. >> on the rioters story regarding the requests. i would like to share a quote. a spokesman confirmed that agency effort saying that to ensure the u.s. remains strong, they have asked federal agencies for all funding meant to counter china or which could aid china. do you share the white house's concern and belief that we should be taking a hard look at the federal level of how it may be benefiting china? >> yes. do you agree we should be concerned with potential chinese interests seeking to invest in american companies and what that could mean to national security? >> yes. >> do you agree it only makes sense to consider china as part of its contracting process? >> yes. the answer is absolutely 100% yes. we are grateful for your leadership on this. i can tell you are 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 don't put the ves in the role of department of justice or the f.b.i. we have to be really careful that we do the things that we are good at, like getting to the moon and to mars. we have to be careful about -- i 100% agree with everything you just said, but we are not really an investigative agency. so we need to be careful about how we go about doing this. >> i want to make sure that we are investigating chinese invexes into u.s. air space doctor s and treating aerospace companies. i would think our aerospace interests, space force, command and nasa are equally important that we give attention to that in regards to china as we do with tiktok. thank you for your time. >> thank you very much. >> let me say there are no other senators in line. i have another question. i know a um in of offices are listening -- a number of offices are listening. if they intend to ask questions, they should let us know. if not, this may be the last round of questioning. mr. administrator, let's talk about the enhanced upper stage u.s., or block b. the enhanced upper stage will allow nasa to make full use of the s.l.s. i am concerned that the budget request defers funding to develop this. how necessary is this and was suggestion do you have for the senate and the house? >> to start, because congress and the senate have fully funded all of our activities for the exploration upper stage, just so you know, those activities are under way, and we are getting to the point where we have got key decision point c or critical design review right in front of us. so all of this to say that -- >> we are talking enhanced upper stage? >> yes, sir. >> all right. >> well, e.u.s., some people call it enhanced and some call it exploration upper stage, but it is the same thing. >> just want to the make it clear. >> so to the extent that we have an exploration upper stage or an enhanced upper stage, that would be greatfully beneficial to the agency, and we can use it. this is important to note. it is also try that when we go to the moon in 2024, we are going to go with what is called propulsion yogenc stage. it will get us to the moon by 2024. when we think about what happens beyond that, depending on if the senate and house make it available to us, we can use the exploration upper stage or the 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. >> chairman, have you got me there? >> we can hear you well. >> 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 services and debris removal will become an increasingly important part of space operations as low earth orbit and other heavily populated or bits become increasingly congested by small satellites. last october i introduced resolution 386, a resolution supporting improvements in space situational awareness in advance of technology and calling for international cooperation to address the increasing dangers of space debris. do you support the kind of improvements to and advancements in situational awareness technology called for in my resolution? >> yes, sir, without question. the challenge that we have is his an agency -- not as an agency, but as a federal government, is data. so we need the ability to get as much information on the debris that is in low earth orbit 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 by the united nations committee on peaceful uses of outer space? >> without international support we end up 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 and creating did he write that -- debris that needs to be dealt with. so i am very supportive of international agreements that mitigate the debris. and of course international agreements enable us to see and respond to the debris and well. >> thank you for that answer. new mexico's space industry is growing rapidly. companies such as virgin galactic, spin launch and up aerospace call new mexico home. i am glad to hear that nasa is beginning to partner with some of these commerlings space flight companies as well as others. we sides using these commercial space entities to eventually take individuals to the international space station and consult our training for nasa personnel, is this an opportunity for nasa to increase other experiments and tasks conducted in places like space port america in new mexico. if so what, sorts of experiments and testing would nasa conduct? >> we do these activities through what we call the flight opportunities program, in the space technologies mission derek trait in nasa. it has conducted over 700 different experiments and technology demonstrations using orbital l sub- vehicles, everything from vertical take-off and landing, horizontal using rocket,, but also high altitude balloons. we have done hundreds of these kind of experiments, and there are huge opportunities in front of us. so the value is if you are micro to get access to gravity, there is only a couple of ways to do it. one is a drop tower. you drop something from the top of a building, and you have a second or two of micro gravity. then we have bare wolic flight. you about get 20-30 second little of micro gravity. after that you have to fly all the way to the international space station, which is tens of million little of dollars and very challenging. it takes years of training. but that commercial sub-orbital capability you mentioned gives us a great opportunity to do experiments for five or 10 minutes in micro gravity, which is a lot more than we can get from flight. you ask what kind of things we could test. right now we have been using it to prove that we can do 3-d printing in micro gravity, which is very difficult, but it can be done. we are proving that we can create the technology capable of that. 3-d printing is hugely valuable when you do space flight. you want to take as few things as possible but be able to make things in space. cryogenic ut management. how do fluids move in a micro gravity type environment? fluids are critical important to space flight, and different fluids operate very differently in micro gravity. understanding that is important in progressing minutes. and not having to fly all the way to the international space station is hugely valuable to the tax payer 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-tended pay loads? a lot of these experiments are conducted by university researchers or private institutions, and some of them wanted human-tended pay loads. we now have an opportunity to accept human-tended pay loads. they wouldn't be nasa astronauts, but they would be commercial sub-orbital scientists or researchers that can fly on these commercial vehicles funded by nasa. so that is a huge development that we have just put forward. i think eventually we are going to be able to use these vehicles to fly american astronauts as well for training and experiments and other capabilities. i really think, senator, there is a great future here with commercial sub-orbital vehicles. >> thank you, mr. administrator for that excellent answer. good to see the good work you are doing over there as nasa. i give it back mr. chairman. >> thank you. i think the bipartisan sentiment expressed by senator udall is widely shared. senator capito? >> thank you, mr. chairman. administrator, it is nice to see you again, however remotely. i really enjoyed your visit to west virginia when we renamed the ibmd center for kathryn johnson. she has since passed away since we met, and she was quite a pioneer. across the state that nasa has and the economic output through the partnerships throughout the state, particularly in the regions we were information i would like to ask a quick question. it is more on the proceedingses side. i support that nasa leveraging innovation and investment that you all bring about, but it seems that nasa's plan to develop a moon lander differs from the usual contracting approach that nasa has taken and has used on development of other major programs and spacecraft. could you talk about that? have you found it beneficial? how has that rolled out? >> yes, ma'am, it is a critically important question. when we think about the successes that we have had with the commercial crew program, for example, which we just saw. we launched our american astronauts on a commercial vehicle, which was fantastic. the goal that we have in that activity as well as commercial resupply of the international space station, the goal that we have is ultimately for nasa to be one customer of many commerce in a very robust commercial marketplace for human activities in low earth orbit. but also we want to have numerous suppliers that are competing against each other on cost, innovation and on safety. we have achieved that with commercial resupply, now commercial crew. we also want to start now commercial habitations. so commercial space stations themselves. this is kind of the progression. the question that we had to answer was given all of the programs that nasa has had in its history, if we are going to go to the moon as quickly as possible, how do we want to organize our efforts? the decision we made is we are going to model this after commercial resupply and commercial crew. so we said we are going to partner with commercial industry to go sustainably to the moon, again 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, innovation and on safety f. we can do that, we can drive down costs, we can increase access. we can have sustainability at e moon, which the apollo program never delimped on. our goal is to figure out how do we have a program where we go to the moon and stay? that commercial ablingt is a big part of that -- ability is a big part of that success we are going to see in the future. >> so the phase which you are in right now, are you finding that there are those private and commercial entities that want to join the space, that there is enough to provide for competition? or is this something that maybe our educational institutions and other private businesses could be developing towards? what are you finding in that space? >> right now, ma'am, we had initially when we did this program to start, we had five proposals. a number of those proposals had large capital investments behind them from the private sector already. i think that there is lots of kenny:ability here already. we have selected three of those five proposals, and of course we are grateful for the funding that we got from the house and the senate for what we call the base period. lunar have got three landers under development right now in the base heard which ends in february of 2021. and then from that point in february we are going to make a determine nation 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. so i would say yes, ma'am, we have had we have had a lot of support from private industry for this activity. >> good, good. i introduced with a senator of the 21st space grant modernization act, which is included in the re-authorization that was passed. i think we have talked about how the space grant program really benefits people all across the country. have you had any stops and starts during the covid era with this, or are you still processing the proposals in a timely fashion, and what is the status of that program? >> as of right now, ma'am, we are ok. but it is going to be more challenging as time goes on for sure. we provide grants to universities for them to deliver on specific tasking. and of course universities are having challenges delivering on that tasking the same as nasa when we do things at our senators. if we have an outbreak at a center, our people can't go to work anymore than the people at a university can go to work. this is a nationwide challenge that we are going to have to deal with. there is a day in the future when we are going to have to make tough decisions, and those decisions are going to be that maybe we don't start a new project, and we use the funding that we received for the continuation of the projects that have fallen behind, or we are going to have to come back to the house and the senate and request additional appropriations in order to do the new starts. i want to be clear. there is an impact from covid. we have been successful as an agency moved forward with missions we call essential. now we are opening up very rapidly mission that is we call mission critical functions, which would have an impact to the agency, but they are not quite as high of an urgency as mission essential functions. but there will be an impact for a lot of missions that are not in those two categories. a lot of those early technology readiness capabilities that universities are involved in are going to see challenges. >> thank you. i yield back. >> thank you, senator. snort peters. >> thank you, mr. chairman and administrator. good to have you here and hear your testimony. congress just recently passed a bipartisan pro swift act that i authored with senator gardner to better predict and mitigate threats of geomagnetic storms and other space weather. if the covid-19 pandemic has taught us anything, we out to be on the look out for things that could upend our economy in a significant way. you were the author of a similar will when you were in the house. i would just like to get your sense of your concern about impacts, space weather and what he they could have on every day lives, and the significant threat they pose, and why this legislation is important, why you authored it in the house and what we can expect? >> yells. you and senator gardner should be absolutely commended for leading on this issue. i was happy to support it 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 2015 and finally getting it done, i know that wasn't easy. but this is going to have huge impacts for america's human face spotlight capability. we think about the artemus program and going to the moon. we are building a space station called gateway to be around the moon to the use of landers. alkrin and buzz neil armstrong. had they been there longer than they were, they would have hit with a solar flare from the sun. that could have damaged then and could have in fact ended their lives early. but we didn't know that back then. now we do know that. understanding the sun, the solar winds, solar radiation. coronal mass solar flares, we need a greater understanding. we want to explore space, and this bill is going to go a long way to enabling us to have the early warning that we need and to be able to dot research necessary to even predict, to warn people based on the prediction, not just the detection of those kind of activities. >> as ranking member of the armed services emerging threat sub committee, i was pleased to see in a memorandum of understanding announced last week that general raymond ant space force had highlighted the importance of completing the survey of near earth objects. these hazardous objects impact the earth as you know and pose a threat to our safety, security. the nasa re-authorization act of 2019 includes an amendment that i authored that directed the second of defense to support nasa's work in this area. it was highlighted with the comment of neil wise, earlier this year, which was priest unknown and probably came from another star system. can you talk about the importance of completing the survey of hazardous objects, something that americans consistently list as a top priority for nasa and how we can help, particularly with the did he employment of a new space-based telescope to better track these threats? >> yes, sir. again, critically important to the nation and the world. i have often said, and others have said the dinosaurs didn't have a space program, and it didn't help them. we think back to 2013, my first year in the house of representatives. we saw the incident where we had this steroid come in and explode over russia. and while it didn't kill anybody that we know of, it resulted in over 1,000 people going to the hospital, and broken windows, and damaged buildings. that was an steroid -- i don't remember how big it was, but it was on the something like 30 meters back in diameter. so we think about that incident, and then we think about how those incident happened throughout history. there have been other incidents. in the early 1900's there was an incident that took out like . 0 square miles in russia so yes, we need to be able to detect these objects. we need to make sure that we do -- near earth only surveillance mission. we are doing that already with the spares surveillance telescope down in australia. nasa partnered with -- at the time it was air force space command to put our own algorithms into their mission. their mission is to detect nefarious activities in space. our mission is to look for bolides in space. put our algorithms in their telescope. it is now delivering great work for us. that is a great partnership and extending that partnership into new domains, we would be very supportive of that. >> thank you for your testimony. appreciate it. ,> thank you, mr. chairman administrator bridenstine. did you make your annual trek to south dakota? >> i have not. covid might have gotten in the way. you're a little busy. we appreciate that. but that's more critical now those discussions around here of allocation of tax dollars so can you describe how the american taxpayer stands to benefit with continued investment of nasa missions and programs and what this means for job growth , technological advancement, and economic prosperity in the united states? >> yes, sir. i'll just start with some history with the apollo program. a lot of people didn't know what was going to materialize from the apollo program. but right now we're having a hearing and the cameras are on watching all over the country, using directv or dish network or internet broadband from space. they might be listening to it on the radio. so these are communication nasa.lities, all from we think about how we navigate with gps to transform and using space assets right now and every -- right now in order to since the earth in every part of the electromagnetic spectrum and how do we increase crop yields for -- while reducing water usage by as much as 25%? and so that's going to feed more of the world than ever before. how we produce food, how we produce energy cleanly so the pipelines can detect leaks early and shut it down so energy companies don't get fined or the epa, for example. nasa is playing a role there. disaster relief is dependent on technologies that nasa has developed. we don't do disaster relief, but we do things that the government benefits from. we think about how to predict whether, how we understand climate and how it's changing. and of course, national security and defense, so many capabilities that nasa is still -- and vice versa. if you go back and time, it was intercontinental ballistic missiles, launching alan shepard into space. so i think these technology programs have demonstrated we really don't know at the end of the day were at all goes, but we know this. the return on investment is huge. those are things we really can't measure. but i hear about tang and velcro, for example, because of the apollo program and those were very nostalgic capabilities that were promoted in the apollo era. but it goes so far beyond that, and we did an economic impact study. that's the impact and disregarding everything that just mentioned to the united states through 2019 was $64 billion. 300,000 jobs in the united states of america directly impacted from nasa investments and capabilities. so that's tremendously valuable . and i think if you want to get a specific return on investment we we've beennt, working remotely. that camera was developed for a mars mission in the 19 nineties -- 1990's and then licensed by nokia. now, everybody on the corpus of cameras used to communicate all over in the world. that return we get from nasa is overwhelming. maybe it's missed by the public -- we the agency get about one thed of 1% of the budget, federal budget, and the return on that has just been astonishing. >> indeed, and that's a good list and a lot of us don't appreciate the impact that's had. very quickly, can you share the technologies at nasa and the potential of those innovations on missions and beyond? >> yeah, so optical communications with a very high frequency to pack more data with more data rates. the spectrum is very narrow. you're able to prevent jamming like you can't with radio communications. so, it focuses the energy specifically where you want the energy to go. when you communicate with mars with a high aperture antenna it hits the entire earth and just wasted energy. but if you never really focus it , you can target not just the earth, but you can target a specific point on the earth, may be an area the size of the state of south dakota, for example. so, optical communications have tremendously valuable impacts. right now, we are partnering with the space forced to do laser and communication technology demonstrators, that they are going to fly on our behalf, and we are going to use that technology to communicate that great data and information for future missions to mars and other places in the solar system. >> thank you, senator. >> thank you. >> thank you, mr. chairman, and to the administrator for testifying today. all three, arizona public universities, arizona state university, and northern arizona university provide students with hands-on stem education research opportunities thanks to the grant and other nasa partnerships. for example, the university of arizona will bring the first astra temperatures at the first time the university has led once -- has led a deep space nasa mission. once a spacecraft launches in 2023 there with the first scientist to study an asteroid , which is remarkably similar to our planetary core. in the past, you testified that university led missions are more likely to be on schedule and under budget. i appreciate your continued support for these partnerships. week, i learned of some potential changes to the near earth surveillance missions at the university of arizona and that raises some important questions. as you know, in 2005, congress touired nasa to be able identify all objects 140 meters or larger by 2020. the university of arizona has been a leader on this issue. three months ago, nasa approved a plan with the director. but last week, without any consultation, nasa decided to remove the director from her role. could you explain this decision to transfer the mission leadership? >> yes. thank you for the question, senator sinema. and i will say i have been briefed on this. i can tell you that we are 100% committed to the neo surveillance mission. and i can also tell you that dr. amy mazer is someone that nasa highly regards. and she is in the lead on this project and she will be the lead on this project. period, that's going to happen. i will say i think the issue here was a communication error . that dr. z,also say the head of the science mission director at nasa, he's 100% committed to getting this right. i want to be really careful what i say here but i think this mission has been resolved in a way that is very favorable to all parties. we want toow that make sure we're getting this done right and we went to make sure that the doctor is in communication with your office regularly on this issue. >> i would appreciate that very much. we have not heard any information since last week and as you can imagine, we in arizona are very interested to retain this mission an important mission and partnership with nasa. i'll move onto my next question. some in nasa said we should be led out of nasa centers and not universities. we know that's not a steadfast hasirement and appears it proven to be cost-effective. can you talk about your position? should directed missions be out of a nasa center or university led appropriate? >> i think there's a lot of opportunities to have missions led by universities. i think the two you highlighted are perfect examples of missions that have been very successful from universities. and these are not small missions. rex. talking about osiris for the first time, we've never been able to orbit an object like osiris rex has orbited. we're going to do, for the first time in american history in october, we're going to go down and grab some material and bring that back to earth. so, an asteroid return mission. and that is led by the university of arizona. and then you mention psyche, which is in the asteroid belt on the others out of mars, in front of jupiter, but a huge steel ball that is likely to be a planetary core that came apart. we've never been able to study a planetary core before and now we can do that led by arizona state university. these missions are perfect example of what could happen when you have the university lead. i know you're very well aware of this and you're a champion when a university leads, you get the scientist and engineer sitting side-by-side to make determinations. nasa says here's the budget and the schedule. what can you do? universities propose and other nonprofits research. they propose. when nasa selects the university , you get the scientist and the engineers, and they are forced to make trades early in the process. and because of those trades, they are able to make schedule and keep budget. and then to evaluate this way instead of that way and early in the process to have a schedule -- result in schedule and budget actually being maintained. and even better is students get involved. graduate students, even undergraduate students. so it's government, it's thatmia, and its students come together, make it happen to keep cost and schedule students graduating with hands-on experience that is tremendously valuable for our agency and our partners that help us develop capability. so, i'm a huge advocate for enabling universities as much as possible. >> i appreciate that. thank you. thank you, mr. chair. i yield back. >> thank you very much. senator sullivan is next. >> thank you. thank you, mr. chairman. can you hear me? ok, great. thank you, mr. chairman and administrator bridenstine for your testimony. we talk about this quite a lot . but a massive history of young americans with the apollo year, which i think had a lot of inspirational moments. i think you've read this book. this,d i talked about "american moonshot," which is a great book. i think the work you're doing right now with the artemis program, the work with other agencies, or companies like spacex and others are doing it's an incredible moment of the next generation to be inspired, young americans to work for you, to get involved with this mission , to get involved with the vision. you were just talking to senator sinema with the collaboration with universities. the issue of the movie, "the martian," a couple of times, one of my favorite movies because it inspires people. can you tell us what you're doing to really inspire the next generation of young americans to rely on for their science and technology expertise to really not only get them involved, but leading on the next exciting phases of nasa's mission? >> yes, sir. i will tell you the biggest thing we can do as an agency to inspire that next generation that you talk about is we have to do stunning achievements. and as you identified, that's the american moonshot was all about in the 1960's. and that's what the artemis program is about today. atyou walk around people nasa today and you ask them, what made you get involved in the space business? the ones who are old enough, they can tell you exactly where they were when neil armstrong was walking on the moon. my generation, we were inspired by the space shuttles. i was in kindergarten. and then we think about some of the setbacks we sell with the shuttles, the challenger and columbia. and my generation, we remember exactly where we were when that happened. and i'd love to tell you -- >> sorry to interrupt, but at can i tell you -- can i ask you what is nasa doing to 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 -- because i think we're at this moment. it's very exciting. and i think the young people that i talked to see this as a great opportunity. but what are you doing exactly, with some 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 will have all kinds of knockoff effects that will have positive effects for our country and society like the apollo missions have. >> absolutely, sir. we invest, through the science mission directorate, into what is called first mission robotics, which gets young people involved in robotic capabilities. our agency is filled with people who were involved with first robotics and high school and even before. we're engaging universities from space grants and those kinds of opportunities. those are all things that enable us to reach into those younger folks and share with them what we're doing and get them engaged and contracting with universities throughout the united states to do some of these missions is actually very big, as well. we started what is called the lunar surface innovation initiative, where we've partnered with 130 institutions across the united states using the johns hopkins applied physics laboratory. they are the kind of integrator of the program, where they are bringing all of these institutions across the united states to include a lot of universities together to do things like create surface power on the moon and dust mitigation on the moon and how we are going ,o maneuver, rove on the moon how we are going to use those resources for a long period of time. we are trying to engage the united states through those programs. and then, of course, we have programs that reach into elementary and junior high schools through the office of stem engagement. you mentioned hollywood. >> i don't always mention hollywood in these hearings. i do think there's opportunity here to really inspire. there's been some great movies that have that ability. so, are you doing anything with them or other media types that can get the word out? >> absolutely. so, we are creating a new program called private astronaut missions. and we're working every day to make sure that people who are everyday people who want to go to space and do things, that we're making space available to them. those private astronaut missions are going to come with a price tag. we're not flying people to space for free. but certainly there's a lot of interest there, from hollywood and others. so we're going to leverage all of that capability. >> thank you. >> thank you. i appreciate it. and if there's any other issues you want the congress to work you with that involves this issue of inspiring the next generation of americans with the work that you're doing, let us know. i think it's a bipartisan issue here in the senate that a lot of us want to get behind. so thank you. keep up the good work. >> thank you, senator. you can count on it. >> continued partner enthusiasm in this subject matter. senator blumenthal? >> thanks, mr. chairman. you're absolutely right there is bipartisan enthusiasm and then -- and i'm pleased to be a supporter and very passionate supporter of space exploration. , perhapsection reflecting my age, about the first space exploration by man is the sputnik, which is a sign of american potential failure. greaten, of course, a recovery by this country, not without its mishaps and obstacles, but very, very inspiring in the end. and a space has always inspired man. that the moment a lot of young, potential scientists and explorers may be seeing right now is there dad being laid off from an aerospace company. or contracting coronavirus. on earth here, we have a pandemic. and i'm concerned about the effects of that pandemic on our aerospace industry about potentially losing a whole class of early career scientists. and losing companies that are struggling. i see them in my state of connecticut. and in particular, in the area of aeronautics, i note that the nasa investment in aeronautics is just 3% of the total budget. i wonder whether you think that's sufficient, given the important impact of aeronautics , not only on scientific development, but also, quite honestly, on jobs and economic progress, connecticut is known -- at least we know ourselves as the aerospace alley. role inry proud of our aeronautics and aerospace. and i'd like to know, what do you think that budget should be increased? a lot hashink that changed in our country, as you have said. we think about the coronavirus pandemic and the challenges and that has 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 there is time for additional support. this is a huge export for our country, which as you identified, creates tons of jobs, and it offsets the trade deficits around the world in a significant way. we saw when boeing had its challenges with the max 8, it impacted the gdp by half a percent. that's a huge impact because of aeronautics. i think the lesson taken from that is that if we were to make -- right investments earlier, senator cantwell asked that's investment one that would be tremendously valuable. and then we need small core engines with advanced material s, higher pressure and temperature capabilities, because they have a higher bypass ratio for carbon emissions. that's what we're investing in with this budget. but i can also say as we go forward, and thinking years in the future, there were very few investments i could think of that would have a bigger impact in the american economy. >> so why not invest more? only 3% of your budget. >> i think we have a good investment in this budget for where we are now. but as years go by, this is going to be an area that we have to consider even more. >> will you commit to a larger investment given we are in competition with other nations, as well? >> i can commit to you that i will work towards that end. >> let me ask about a different area, the spacesuit program. as you know, on august 31, the nasa office of inspector general notified congress of an impending audit examining nasa's management development of the next generation spacesuits for the lunar missions and future deep space exploration. i have concerns about the issues with the current acquisition strategy for next generation of spacesuits and the potential it -- affect it could have on companies in connecticut. as you know, connecticut is deeply involved in spacesuit development and production. should we be concerned that there are technical and scheduling issues with the next generation spacesuit? and what are you doing about them? >> yes, sir. so the key on the spaceship -- spacesuit issue is will may go to the moon, which is an entirely different spacesuit because you have dust. you have to walk. you different than what have on the international space station. what nasa is doing rapidly right now is developing that capability. for the moon landing for artemis three, we're going to be developing the internally, but doing that with an intent and forethought to make sure what we want to see in the future as our -- is all of our production capabilities with the spacesuits be transferred to the commercial sector. and i think that follows along with our goal when we talk about the human landing system being developed commercially, we want spacesuits to be developed commercially, as well. if there are specific things that we can work on together, i'm happy to. >> well, i would like to work on you -- work with you but may i suggest engaging the industry? that might be useful, as well. >> yes, sir. >> thank you. >> thank you, senator blumenthal. >> thank you. thank you, mr. chairman. you mentioned tang a while ago. it brought back a lot of childhood memories. my mom would put that on the breakfast table. that was really a big deal for us. and the fact that you also mentioned mere acts, because i want to talk about that, too, women, minorities in research. you have programs to help recruit and retain stem students from underrepresented populations. asked for a nasa program to allow more states like nevada to participate in space and aeronautics research. the process, the one that you mentioned, we award research grants to minorities serving in institutions. the goal is to diversify the nasa workforce, as well as the stem workforce. i'm proud to note, but for the first time in our state history, nevada was selected for the fellowship. and the doctoral student with -- will be working on a project with the robotics mobile platform. however, despite the success of nasa and other stem education programs, the president's most recent budget requests suggested terminating nasa and proposed drastic cuts to funding. so, you're so passionate about these programs. can you describe your familiarity on what experts are doing, the importance of increasing our diversity and research? >> yes, ma'am. i will say the folks at nasa that are involved in the program are doing amazing work and it does in fact pay dividends. it is also true that what the budget request does is it focuses on the mission directorate and what they're trying to achieve as national goals, and it focuses on those activities that will help achieve those goals. now to be clear, if the senate funds, as the senate has in past years, the office of stem engagement, we're going to move forward and execute and those programs are going to serve very well. >> [indiscernible] would you like to see us do that and see the president support that? >> well, i will tell you, it has been tremendously valuable. i will also tell you that i think there are about -- are other opportunities to find those types of programs that would be more in line with nasa's missions. and that's more where the budget is focused. >> [indiscernible] >> say that again. >> would you share some of those programs with us? >> short. -- sure. for example, when you think about contracting with universities, we initiated a program within the aeronautics mission directorate, for example, that's a university leadership initiative where the aeronautics mission directorate is partnering directly with minority universities to include aeronautics them in activities to include unmanned aerial systems and things like that that have a direct impact to nasa's mission. we have other programs that we're doing through the science mission directorate as it relates to robotics. we're going to the surface of the moon and other things. i think we're all committed to achieving what you've highlighted is so important , which is creating that diversity for the workforce and for students. and i think i can very clearly say that we are clearly committed to that agenda. >> i am concerned that you're trying to fold things into one enterprising solution. so moving forward, i'd really like to see, know how you plan to keep exports, a separate program, not by folding it into other programs. and, you know, speaking about a budget and if you scale it down, how are we going to then inspire those future generations, going to mars, going to other places, if we don't invest in the next generation now? >> yes, ma'am. i think we are 100% committed to investing in that next generation and doing those amazing and stunning achievements, like the artemis program, where we're 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 that then my 12-year-old daughter. and so i think these are the kind of things that we're focused on and we want to move out on and certainly engaging all along the way new reps and other institutions that encourage that next generation to get involved in the stem fields. >> thank you. i appreciate your service and yield back. >> thank you. thank you, senator rosen. senator scott. >> thank you, mr. chairman. him for hisank commitment to nasa and space exploration. he's got a lot of years up here and what i've watched over the years is you've had a significant commitment, and i know it's important to your home state, so thank you for that. as you know, nasa is pretty important to florida, as it is to mississippi and a few other states. 2010ame governor back in and the space industry was in pretty bad shape then. i think we lost over 7,000 jobs cuts, whene obama they stopped man's flight. but since then, the federal government has been a good partner. we've gotten a lot of money every year to get space exploration and bring it back and now it's unbelievable what's going on there. i just want to think nasa for using the private sector to do things. it was exciting to see the spacex launch. it was exciting to be there and i'm sure your 12-year-old daughter is excited. my 8-year-old grandson is committed to be the first man on mars. he is very comfortable between being that and being a paratrooper and a policeman. he told his mom he's picked jobs that aren't dangerous. he told me it's not dangerous to go to space anymore. >> ok. that means we're doing a good job. what you've created is you've done a good job creating excitement for these young people, and i think that's going to pay off, not just for the space industry but stem education in the country. what do you need that you don't have to continue the goal to continue to explore space and to do it in a responsible manner? >> yes, sir. i think probably the biggest thing and especially for florida, and i want to say that the state of florida benefited greatly when you were governor with the establishment of space florida and all the commercial activities and your leadership on that. and now the kennedy space center and cape canaveral being this multiuser spaceport. so, the vision there and the execution has been very helpful to us as an agency, and we're grateful for that. a couple of things that i think are important to note, we all know that the international space station is going to come to an end of its life at some point. it cannot last forever and of course, it's been in november we're celebrating 20 years of a continually occupied space station. that's a long time. that's amazing. but we need to start making the investments for what comes next and what comes next is the commercialization of low earth orbit. as you've seen, we've done commercial resupply. we've now done commercial crew from the space coast there in florida. the next big thing is commercial space stations. all of those resupply missions and commercial crew missions need a place to go. and if the international space station comes to the end of his life and we don't have commercial space stations, there's going to be a lot of rockets that aren't going to get launched. and i think it's important that we fund our efforts as an agency for those commercial space stations. we've put that in the budget requests in year's passed and it hasn't gotten funded. that's critically important for the country. china is building what they call the chinese international space station. they're working very hard to attract our international partners, which we have helped to build their capacity and now they're going to potentially take that to china. we're working to prevent that from happening. but at the same time, it's important for us to think about the architecture that we need. we need commercial resupply, commercial crew, commercial habitats. nasa needs to be a customer. but we need to change the paradigm like we've done for launch vehicles. we need to change the paradigm for habitation in space and then apply what we've learned within those programs, commercial access to the moon. we're happy and excited that in november of next year, we are going to lunch the most powerful rocket ever. >> which state was that? i wonder which state. [laughter] >> without mississippi, we can't get the rocket to florida so it's in all of the above strategy and certainly we're excited about launching that next year. you asked what we need and i'm making the best case i can that we need to start thinking about what happens next in the low earth orbit. >> i know the chairman may be supportive trying to do the space exploration. let me start by thanking you. you've been a real partner at the visitor center and i think it's done an unbelievable job of exciting families about what goes on in space. so, thanks for being a partner. i know they work hard to try to do a great job and excite kids to want to explore space. it's an amazing place. >> thank you, senator scott and for that shout out in mississippi. administrator bridenstine, you had a little bit of a rocky confirmation process -- >> i don't remember. >> well, i do. let me just say you've won over a number of skeptics and bipartisan support for the job that you're doing it has been indicated very profoundly today, and i appreciate the job you're doing. the drink, tang, 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 that pepsico needs to make a great contribution to nasa based on all of the publicity that you've 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. upon receipt, our distinguished witness is requested to submit his written answers to the committee as soon as possible. so with that, we conclude the hearing and express our appreciation to the administrator bridenstine. >> thank you, chairman. >> is it cold enough for you in here? >> i like it cold. thank you all so much. i won't come and shake hands, but i appreciate it. >> good to see you. >> good to see you. looking forward to getting down to mississippi. invitedmake sure you're for sure. we will find you a good place to eat. >> we'll get you a front row seat. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> former fbi director andrew mccabe testifies before the senate judiciary committee on the crossfire hurricane investigation, which looks at russian interference in the 2016 election. watch live coverage of the hearing tuesday at 10:00 a.m. eastern on c-span3. stream live or on-demand at c-span.org, or listen on the free c-span radio app. tonight at 9:00 p.m. eastern on afterwards, the washington post pulitzer prize winning book critic carlos lozada offers his thoughts on the volume of books written about donald trump and his presidency in what were we thinking, a brief intellectual thinking of the trump era. he's interviewed by pamela paul. >> sometimes the best stuff, and the most deeply reported, interesting revelations are not god, trump iny this meeting said this. or trump stumbled while he was reading the words of the constitution because he didn't know what they meant, or people still documents of his desk. those are memorable, but for instance, in a book like a very stable genius, which was a huge bestseller, it was stuff like that that ended up kind of overpowering the conversation surrounding the book. and to me, that was far from the most interesting stuff in the book. that was the first book i learned that robert mueller's team had passed up the opportunity to take a look at the letter that the attorney general william barr was going to put out characterizing the mueller report. in hindsight, that seems like a big mistake. i really wish they had looked at that letter first and may be weighed in. >> watch book tv this weekend on c-span two. >> now, a discussion about technology policy, data protection, and privacy during the coronavirus pandemic and what a u.s. equivalent to europe's general data protection regulation might look like. this event was part of an aspen institute form. -- forum. >> i'm tom leonard, senior fellow at ppi. and welcome to this afternoon's privacy panel come over we will discuss how the pandemic has changed our views on privacy and what that implies

Related Keywords

Australia , Japan , Nevada , United States , Washington , Florida , China , Virginia , Togo , New Mexico , Russia , Mississippi , Connecticut , Arizona , South Dakota , Colorado , Hollywood , California , Hancock County , Americans , America , Chinese , American , Amy Mazer , Tom Leonard , Carlos Lozada , Pamela Paul , Joe Biden , Robert Mueller , Johns Hopkins , Kamala Harris , William Barr ,