Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, May 12, 1990 TAG: 9005120032
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: KINGSVILLE, TEXAS LENGTH: Medium
He renewed his commitment to landing Americans on the planet - and for the first time set a public deadline for the mission: July 20, 2019, the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing by U.S. astronauts in the Apollo space program. But he did not say how the multibillion-dollar centerpiece of his new "Age of Exploration" would be financed.
"It's time to open up the final frontier. There can be no turning back," Bush said.
"I believe that before Apollo celebrates the 50th anniversary of its landing on the moon, the American flag should be planted on Mars," the president said in a commencement address at Texas A&I University.
The speech was the first in a series of three university graduation addresses - including one at Liberty University - Bush was scheduled to deliver Friday and today, focusing on technology and the role of democracy in Eastern Europe.
While the president's deadline for a landing on Mars does not amount to a firm commitment to spend the necessary billions of dollars that will be needed to achieve the goal, his fiscal 1991 budget has asked for a 24 percent increase in spending for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the largest increase in funding for any major government agency next year. Under the president's plan, NASA would receive $15.2 billion in the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1.
Bush's renewed focus on Mars, and space exploration in general, reflects a commitment that he made last July 20, on the 20th anniversary of man's arrival on the moon, to return America to the business of space exploration and to send a manned spaceship to Mars.
The president also has set a goal of placing an operating space station in permanent orbit around Earth by the end of the century as the first step toward a permanent manned presence in space, and of establishing sometime afterward a manned laboratory on the Moon.
Asked aboard Air Force One as he was about to leave Washington for Texas whether the United States could indeed reach his Mars goal in 30 years, he replied: "You have to go fairly fast. It's a long way out there."
As for where the money would come from, he replied: "Thirty years is a long time."
Bush said that the nation's renewed commitment to exploration of space - and his related plan to use space vehicles to better chart conditions on Earth, including changes in climate - would generate widespread benefits.
"Our space program will help rekindle public interest in science and mathematics and revitalize an area of our educational system that has become disturbingly weak," the president said.
by CNB