“If we don't do it, somebody else will. The Chinese, the Europeans and the Japanese all have the goal of going to the moon. Certainly we don't want to wake up and see that they have a base there before we do.”
“I count myself among the strong supporters of exploration, but as I've said on previous occasions, we have to be willing to pay for it. We shouldn't try to implement it by cannibalizing NASA's other important programs.”
“There is going to be no room for margin of error in terms of flying again if there is not a high level of confidence that the problems we know about are solved,”
“This plan is coming out at a time when the nation is facing significant budgetary challenges. Getting agreement to move forward on it is going to be heavy lifting in the current environment, and it's clear that strong presidential leadership will be needed.”
“I fear that the approach being taken by this administration to move the Vision forward over the near term may make it very difficult to sustain the initiative beyond 2008.”
