This month Elon Musk's SpaceX blasted off to the Int. Space Station with NASA. SpaceX's first commercial manned flight to the ISS.
But, believe it or not the Russians beat America by a decade or so, in offering commercial space exploration.
And, Washington's Jeffrey Manber talks to Back Story's Dana Lewis on the challenges ahead in space and business. Manber heads up a company which is one of the main commercial users of The Int. Space Station and says Trump's Admin. started to back out of business in space, what will Biden do?
This month Elon Musk's SpaceX blasted off to the Int. Space Station with NASA. SpaceX's first commercial manned flight to the ISS.
But, believe it or not the Russians beat America by a decade or so, in offering commercial space exploration.
And, Washington's Jeffrey Manber talks to Back Story's Dana Lewis on the challenges ahead in space and business. Manber heads up a company which is one of the main commercial users of The Int. Space Station and says Trump's Admin. started to back out of business in space, what will Biden do?
Nine eight seven five three two one.[inaudible] not even gravity contains humanity when we explore it as one[inaudible] that's the word we want to hear. State wonder Pulsion is nominal crew onboard dragon and Falcon nine stage one is preparing to throttle down. This is in preparation for max Q, which is maximum aerodynamic pressure. Call out for throttle down power and telemetry. Continue to be nominal for the vehicle. Now traveling at 262 meters per second,
Speaker 2:Let's throttle up. Hi everyone. And welcome to backstory on Dana Lewis. Four astronauts successfully took off in NASA in space. X's historic first commercial flight to the international space station on November the 15th. Why does it matter well beyond the fact that, you know, if you like space travel and you like space exploration, it's very cool to see that rocket that is paid for by Elon Musk and NASA to kick off the launch pad and carry those astronauts back to the international space station. This is a new era in space where commercial enterprise working with NASA is now pushing back to the international space station and the Americans who have had to pay the Russians some$80 million per mission to take them into space because the shuttles were grounded long ago. Suddenly now have a path back to the international space station and then NASA will push out from there to moon missions and Mars missions. Um, and it's the beginning of something new between this partnership between commercial enterprise and NASA? It is ironic that when I was a Russia correspondent, I mean, based in Moscow for NBC news in Russia, and I was covering space station Mir, that's the one that proceeded the ISS that NASA wouldn't absolutely look at any commercial partnerships, none of them. And yet they were running out of money. The shuttles were getting into trouble. Eventually. Mir was deorbiting by the Russians and suddenly the Americans didn't have their own spacecraft to get them up to the international space station and beyond. So here we are. And I want to introduce you in a moment to someone who was involved in those early missions with the Russians to try and introduce commercial space travel instead of taxpayers having to fund everything. And here's the irony, the Soviet union, which don't forget. We were in a huge competition with, in the sixties and seventies for getting to space being the first to the moon they were in. They were in space by the way, the first with their first man mission with Yuri Gagarin, the cosmonaut, isn't it ironic that this was a competition between democracy and capitalism versus communism. And yet, ironically, you're about to hear how the, the Russians, after the fall of the Soviet union and communism were in fact, the first ones to pave the road towards commercial space travel and the Americans and Nessa absolutely rejected the idea.
Speaker 3:All right, I'm in London, but I take it to Washington now and Jeffrey Manber heads up a company called nano racks. Hi Jeff. Hey, good morning, Dana. I was thinking back that the first time I met you was at mission control on the edge of Moscow, um, in 2001. And you were about to help an American entrepreneur go into space, a guy named Dennis Tita.
Speaker 4:Yeah. Uh, it was, uh, well, it was if I may, if, if it's, if this is allowed in journalism, uh, we met one year before, when we were sending the Russian crew to the Mir space station and we were opening up the mirror after, uh, I think nine months or something when it was empty. And I headed a Dutch company called mere Corp. And I'm pretty sure that you were present, uh, in the mission control room. Uh, and I remember I was scared out of my mind, uh, and we were sending two Russian cosmonauts, uh, to the Russian space station mirror. And it was the first and still only as we do this recording, uh, uh, human being sent on a commercial mission, uh, with total private funding and the Dennis Tito was a year later.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you're right. And, uh, because we, we, as American correspondents were called out to the mission control center. Every time there was a burp on mere and there was a lot of them, I mean, there was a fire and there were so many different incidents with me or, um, and then w what was interesting. I was taking a look back, um, and it's interesting in talking to Jeffrey Jeffrey member is that in fact, the Russians had a company called enter DIA and enter Ghia and Jeffrey, you can explain it, but while NASA said, no commercialization Energie became from post Soviet period, it became a private enterprise in effect,
Speaker 4:Right? And not even in effect. I mean, you have to remember, this is now Dana going way back. Uh, but after, uh, the collapse of the Soviet union, uh, Gorbachev privatized, and wanted to privatize the few world-class markets that Russia had, uh, one was the Bolshoi ballet, and it went private. One was Aeroflot and it went private and the third was space. And, and so they knew they had an internationally accepted, um, uh, industry that would find their customers in the West
Speaker 3:Because they didn't want to fund it anymore. Government just didn't want to pay all the different reputable,
Speaker 4:I don't care. The reason in Washington, they would always say to me, Oh, the Russians are being capitalists because they need the money. And I say, what do you think I show up at work every day? Cause I don't need the money. I mean, what does it matter about one's, uh, motivation? Uh, the reality is that the Russians unleashed, uh, 94, 1995, their organizations and the equivalent of Boeing, the equivalent of Lockheed, and they said you survive with customers. And that profoundly changed the industry, the space industry space exploration, and we feel those ripples today. So interview,
Speaker 3:Wait, wait, wait, because it's incredible that here we are, 70 years of communism, they wouldn't embrace capitalism and free market. And then after the collapse of the Soviet union, it's NASA, that will not embrace privatization of space and commercial interests in their space program, but the Russians are leading the way. And I don't think people realize that.
Speaker 4:Well, I had a, I, since you're in London, uh, I'll say that I had a cheeky comment in, uh, in the nineties. Uh, and that was, if you wanted to practice, uh, capitalism in space, you had to go to Moscow. And if you wanted to work with the socialists, you work with NASA, and that was the impact. That's why I was in Moscow, much of the late nineties. That's why we did Dennis Tito. And that's why we did Lance bass event sink. And that's why the Europeans European space agency began paying for their astronauts to go to the space station. But you're correct. Dana, the, the, the capital, the first capitalist, the first commercial offshoots of the government exploration of space or governments, um, where the Russian in the post Soviet period.
Speaker 3:Unbelievable. So the space shuttle program ends and the America has no way to send anybody to space. People don't realize that after announcing that they were going to ground the shuttle program, suddenly I don't know what the bill was for T for Tito's seat, but it was rumored to be around 20 million to get on a Soyuz. Where are you going to give me the number or not?
Speaker 4:It was 20 million in cash and media rights
Speaker 3:And media rights. So you got some of that back, I assume, 20 million soon as, as soon as NASA announces that they are going to ground the shuttle program, they then have to pay the America has to pay Russia to take them to the international space station. And I think it was about 80 million arrived.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it started much less. And it wasn't even the passengers. I mean, we, we, um, we were doing this, uh, this conversation in 2020 and, uh, 20 years after, um, the international space station, uh, began the construction. We are dependent today, even with the exciting news or space X and the commercial crew. And today we no longer need, it seems the Russians to ferry pass, uh, astronauts to in front, but we still need the Russians for their cargo. We still need them to carry oxygen. We still, I mean, the, the Russians are a true partner with us, or we are partners together, uh, on the international space station. They, there were a lot of bumps along the way. If you're in the community, you know, what went on and goes on in the sausage factory. But the, the, the, the, the, your point is, is spot on the, the, we cannot, we could not, and cannot do the international space station without the partnership between Russia and America. So the us is still paying Russia. We no longer pay them for the cargo, it's their contribution. Uh, and we supply things for the Russians, and it's still, we're still codependent on one another, but for communications, they need us, we need them for oxygen. It's, it's, uh, it's, we're tied in together, which is one of the redeeming quality, still about the aging international space station.
Speaker 3:Why did it take NASA? And I want to talk to you about nano racks in a sec, but why did it take NASA so long to come to grips with the fact that the government coffers are not endless, and they will just not keep getting all this money anymore, and that they had to embrace commercial partners,
Speaker 4:They're engineers. I mean, so again, it's compensation is taking place while we hope that the Biden folks will, will, uh, uh, come in in January. Um, and I don't know if NASA folks are coming to grips on the fundamental changes that will take place in American space policy, uh, with our return to the moon on what the emphasis NASA will be going forward. Uh, you know, now I've spent, you know, I spent decades in space and NASA folks, a good friends of mine, but they're engineers first. And they don't sit there thinking about what this policy change will mean. And, and so we also did a disservice to NASA, uh, Dana, I'll say, in the mid nineties, bill Clinton, the Clinton administration said verily, we're going to end the American space station, freedom of which we had spent billions on. And it was being constructed. I want you to work with the Russians, which made me happy. I worked for the Russians and I was one that pushed us to work with the Russians. But then there was a third part. I didn't anticipate NASA get on planes and go negotiate with the Russians and all of these NASA engineers with their thin blue passports who had never been overseas before get on a plane, go to a foreign land Moscow in 1992 in 1993 with dim lights, not working and, and society and collapsed. And they come, they come from Texas and Florida and Alabama, and, uh, and they'd never met international people. And who do they meet on the other side, Russians that have been schooled in negotiations with Americans that had hired people like me to advise them on how to work with America. And it was a catastrophe. It was just in the beginning. It was so, so, so my heart goes out and I would go to the white house and the Clinton time and say, guys, you realize you're sending NASA engineers and negotiate with very sophisticated people. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Don't worry. We'll take care of don't don't.
Speaker 3:What was the, if you were to give me an example of the catastrophe, where did the Russians get the edge?
Speaker 4:They got the edge in, in, uh, uh, very good contracts, like for, for me or shuttle, if you all remember, you know, those beautiful pictures of the shuttle docking with the Mir space station and the, and the Americans paid Russia close to$500 million for it. And it was a very good contract written very well. Uh, and, and, uh, fortunately the Russians produced all the time. They, you know, sometimes it took, uh, it took a while, but the contracts were it's strangely sophisticated contracts written by very sophisticated people
Speaker 3:Tell me you are nano racks. Um, the largest commercial user of the ISS with customers in over 32 countries. Um, and then you are also sitting on the next space, X cargo ship after this one to ISS on the Bishop airlock. First of all, what is the Bishop airlock? And then just in general, what, what is the commercial use of the international space station? What do you, what do you do up there?
Speaker 4:Well, you know, the, the international space station is owned by multiple governments and, uh, as we all know, governments, not market well, and, uh, it's not the job of governments. And so when the station was nearing completion, about 11 years ago, uh, I realized that very few people were using very few companies were signing up to use the station. And, uh, we approached, uh, uh, NASA and said, you know, we don't, you know, we don't want funding from you. And they were like, Oh my God, what's this. And we want to put research hardware on the station that will pay for, if you give us resources, uh, if you give us astronaut time and power and, and launches up, and NASA was pretty desperate at that time, people were not using it. So they gave us a very fair, very good space act agreement. Um, and we have grown year by year. And as you said, we have customers in over 30 countries now, we've, we've sent up over 1000 projects in 10 years, we've deployed over 280 satellites. Uh we've um, a lot of companies I'm proud to say, Oh, they were existence to having worked with NanoRacks and, and we've shown the value of working on a space station as a destination. And, uh, I'll, I'll say first, I'll say what the Bishop airlock is. And then if I may say something philosophical there, I say something philosophical, but, uh, we right now, the only cargo door on the space station is the Japanese space agency. They have a magnificent, uh, air lock, uh, which is how we've deployed, uh, our 200 and the most about 280 satellites. Um, and we thought we, the market demands something bigger. And, and right now, when we want to use the Japanese airlock, we have an agreement with NASA. NASA has a treaty with the Japanese government and, and th that filters down to the Japanese space agency. It is not the most efficient system in the world. And so we went to NASA about four years ago and said, we will self-fund and airlock. And, uh, um, if you'll give us a free ride up and, uh, they said, yes. And so now sitting on the next, uh, space X cargo ship space, X 21, we are on the vehicle waiting for the launch in, in December. And, uh, uh, it is a permanent addition to the space station, five times larger than the JAXA, uh, air lock. And we already have, uh, contracts from European space agency, NASA, commercial customers, uh, and it will be, it allows for more efficient, uh, cargo and satellites to, and from the space station.
Speaker 3:Just give me a, sort of a, uh, a sampling of some of the other projects that make money on the international space station through the nano racks helps on those contracts. What are the contracts for, what do you do?
Speaker 4:Uh, we do biomedical research, uh, for our customers. We do, uh, um, uh, basic research, applied manufacturing. We have some fiber optic manufacturer, Z bland, uh, projects going on on behalf of our customers, additive manufacturing, uh, education. Uh, and so it's the gamut. And, um, I've taken some criticism because I never say no to a customer. And, uh, and, uh, and yet, because I want to understand the whole market, we've done everything from aging, uh, scotch turpines where, uh, uh, scotch, uh, uh, scotch, uh, odd beg, uh, manual, uh, did research for two years with turpines they're the building blocks of whiskey and food flavorings and paint. Think about that the next time you have credible. Yes. And, and what they found was very interesting. They found that the turpines aged on the station over two years as if it had been five years. So you had an acceleration of flavor. And so one of the things we're doing in that are X, we, you probably don't know this. We announced a few weeks ago, a major project with the UAE, the Emirates, uh, to do in space research to a far greater degree, we are going to have our own researchers, um, working on, uh, in space research to look at overcoming climate change, uh, developing ag tech products. So I happen to think that the environment of space is one of the keys for a lot of innovative research that just hasn't taken place yet. So,
Speaker 3:I mean, it's incredible stuff. Right. And does, does has NASA now, do they reluctantly kind of go, Oh yeah. Nano racks. Well, yeah, we'll sell it to them because we need, we need the extra dough or do they now, you know, has there been a sea change in thinking,
Speaker 4:Well, you know, like many things, there's no one thing called NASA. Okay. There's different areas. And as we speak today, at the end of the Trump administration, there has been a pushback against commercial. And, uh, a lot of folks, uh, ending up in the, uh, the Trump administration ironically, uh, are bothered by some of the things that NanoRacks and others are doing. And we've had some turndowns lately to speak Franklin. We've had some commercial projects lately never happened to us before. And it's because some of the folks, uh, think, uh, this is not still the right use of station resources, but I always like to use the example. You may have heard that a year ago, we had DoubleTree cookies and we baked DoubleTree cookies on the station. And, uh, some of you may know that when the old days, when you used to travel and you'd go to a hotel, if you went to a DoubleTree, you could smell their, their cookies when you walked in. So DoubleTree came to NanoRacks and said, we want to, uh, bake cookies on the station. Well, guess what? There was no oven. And so there was no oven on a hundred billion dollars permanently crude station, because NASA is afraid of crumbs. So my guys,
Speaker 3:Or, uh, another and fire Crump's, they
Speaker 4:Were afraid of pumps. So, so my guys designed an oven that was, uh, that is circular. And, uh, everybody smiles I'll DoubleTree cookies, but what did we get out of this commercial project? We got the first oven. We now have others doing very basic research. And we signed with Scholastic and American educational company that, that went into 50,000 students and taught them why baking in space is different than the earth. I believe in commercial, I don't believe in it's solely because of cashflow. I believe because it's the most efficient means to educate and reward, uh, the society that paid for things like the space station.
Speaker 3:Very cool. What will happen in the Biden administration? Will they embrace the commercialization that the Trump administration was getting a little chilly with?
Speaker 4:I think, um, it may still be Chile, uh, and that's a good segue. I think that NASA will embrace climate change. Uh, I think that, uh, uh, they will, uh, want NASA to be part of the solution via earth sciences. I'm very excited with our UAE announcement on the star lab research center, where we'll have 15, 20 researchers looking at ag tech innovation, uh, using the environment of space, uh, to overcome to green the deserts of earth. Uh, and I think that, that the commercial pathway will be viewed with skepticism. One of my greatest fears, Dana, and I've been saying this publicly for a year is NASA flew a little too close to the Trump flame to the Trump's son. And whether it's the space force or whether it's some of these commercial projects, I fear that they may be too well identified with Trump. You know, Trump ran around saying, uh, rich people want rockets, which guys, uh, own rockets or something like that. And I had a great worry a year ago with the publicity, with the space force. We can argue as to the merits of the United States, having a division that looks for securing the security of the United States assets and space. Okay. We can argue that, but good law, uh, logo branding, uh, you know, how closely it's identified with Trump's. So I have some concerns that the Biden folks are gonna come in and as the Trump folks did and say, you know, this in space, it was Trump's, let's get rid of it. We'll see. We'll see
Speaker 3:If you look last question to you, if you, if you look forward to, there's going to be a man mission back to the moon in 2024, uh, you know, they keep talking about, well, you're, you're raising your eyebrows.
Speaker 4:Yes. They won't be a man, man. Mission back to accrued mission back to the moon in 2024, have a go ahead.
Speaker 3:They they've said that there would be. Yeah. And I get it wrong.
Speaker 4:Well, no, but even before the transition, uh, out of Trump, um, it was already behind. So let's hope they continue the return of America to the moon. Uh, let's hope that program continues. Uh, I think, uh, there'll be a year of what we wait for the new head of NASA. So 20, 24 is out, uh, this is my personal view. NanoRacks is not involved in this, but looking at him as an observer, I think 20, 24 is out. The question is how much do we commit funding to return to the moon? When we have very strong climate change, environmental issues of which NASA can be part of the solution.
Speaker 3:So if you look forward to, you know, uh, space X is an Elon Musk's dream of, of inhabiting Mars and all of that will commercial space, commercial companies like yours, play a part in, in this as we go forward. Or do you think that NASA, if the, if suddenly they become cash flush again, we'll turn their back on commercialization again.
Speaker 4:Well, you asked a lot here and you said, it's the last question, and I'm going to answer with a lot of issues. You may want to follow up another time. First off, I think the United States will not be cash flush, uh, whomever, you know, and the next administration, um, we, we have to pay for COVID and we have a lot of debts to pay. And so I I'm, I'm really dubious that there'll be a lot of money for organizations like NASA over the next couple of years. Uh, and, and so, but having said that I see parallel paths emerging. I see the, um, the, uh, extraordinary wealth of Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk continuing to go forward, um, with their personal aspirations. And I think more than ever, they will literally lift up and keep going. The commercial pathway companies like NanoRacks will find niches important niches, like private space stations. Okay. As, as bayzos and, and Musca continue their dreams, uh, companies like NanoRacks will be able to work in partnership with governments, uh, whether UAE, the United States, uh, and work with entrepreneurs like Bezos and, and muscle, it's going to be a fascinating time to figure this all out,
Speaker 3:Jeffrey, you know? Yeah. We could go on for a couple of hours on this, but I mean, I think most people just don't even realize the backstory on how the, how this has been run financially, and hasn't been run very well financially, the space program. Um, you wrote a book called selling peace inside the Soviet conspiracy that transformed the U S space program. That books, I think you've got to do a second edition because that, how old is that? 10 years ago.
Speaker 4:Yeah. Yeah, exactly. All
Speaker 3:Right. Time to write another one, because there's been a lot of developments in commercialization of space in your company, and, uh, it's amazing Jeffrey member. Great to talk to you again,
Speaker 4:Great to talk to you and great to see you take care.
Speaker 3:And that's our backstory on the commercialization of space. If you have never heard president Kennedy's full speech on space, you ought to, it's inspiring romantic. We choose to go to the moon. You've probably heard a ten second bite of it, but I leave you with the full speech it's worth a listen because it gives incredible perspective on the pace of science in this speech was given September the 12th, 1962 in 1969. Kennedy's promise was realized Americans walked on the moon and in 2024, the first female astronauts will set foot on the surface of the moon. 55 years after Neil Armstrong took his iconic one small step. We have indeed come so far. I'm Dana Lewis. Thanks for listening to backstory. And I'll talk to you again soon. And here's president Kennedy
Speaker 5:President. Pitsa mr. Vice-president, governor Congressman Thomas, Senator Wiley and Congressman Miller, mr. Webb, Val scientists, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen. I appreciate your president having made me an honorary visiting professor, and I will assure you that my first lecture will be a very brief, I am delighted to be here and I'm particularly delighted to be here on this occasion. We meet at a college noted for knowledge in a city noted for progress in a state noted for strength. And we stand in need of all three. Well, we meet in an hour of change and challenge and a decade of hope and fear in an age of both knowledge and ignorance, the greater our knowledge increases the greater our ignorance unfolds. Despite the striking fact that most of the scientists that the world has ever known are alive and working today. Despite the fact that this nation's own scientific manpower is doubling every 12 years in a rate of growth, more than three times, that of our population as a whole, despite that the vast stretches of the unknown and the unanswered and the unfinished still far outstrip our collective comprehension, no man can fully grasp how far and how fast we have come. But condense, if you will, the 50,000 years of man's recorded history in a time span of about a half a century stated in these terms, we know very little about the first 40 years, except at the end of them, advanced men had learned to use the skins of animals to cover them. Then about 10 years ago, under this standard man emerged from his caves to construct other kinds of Sheldon. Only five years ago, man, learned to write and use a car with wheels. Christianity began less than two years ago. The printing press came this year, and then less than two months ago, during this whole 50 year span of human history, the steam engine provided a new source of power Newton explored the meaning of gravity last month, electric lights and telephones and automobiles and airplanes became available. Only last week. We developed penicillin and television and nuclear power. And now if America's new spacecraft succeeds in reaching Venus, we will have lift really reached the stars before midnight. Tonight, this is a breathtaking pace and such a pace cannot help, but create new whales as it dispels old new ignorance, new problems, new dangers, Shirley, the opening vistas of space promise high costs and hot chips as well as high reward. So it is not surprising that some would have us stay where we are a little longer to rest to wait bought this city of Houston. This state of Texas, this country of the United States was not built by those who waited and rested and wished to look behind them.
Speaker 1:[inaudible]
Speaker 5:This country was conquered by those who move forward. And so we'll space. William Bradford speaking in 1630 of the founding of the Plymouth Bay colony said that all great and honorable actions are a company with great difficulty and both must be enterprised and overcome with answerable courage. If this capsule history of our progress teaches us anything, it is that man in his quest for knowledge and progress is determined and cannot be deterred the expiration of space. No, go ahead. Whether we join in it or not. And it is one of the great adventures of all time and no nation, which expects to be the leader of other nations can expect to stay behind in this race for space. Those who came before us made certain that this country rode the first waves of the industrial revolution, the first waves of modern invention and the first wave of nuclear power. And this generation does not intend to founder in the backwash of the coming age of space. We mean to be a part of it, we mean to lead it.
Speaker 1:[inaudible]
Speaker 5:All the eyes of the world. Now look into space to the moon and to the planets beyond. And we have vowed that we shall not see it governed by a hostile flag of conquest, but by a banner of freedom and peace, we have bow that we shall not see space failed with weapons of mass destruction, but with instruments of knowledge and understanding yet the vows of this nation can only be fulfilled if we in this nation are first and therefore we intend to be first
Speaker 1:[inaudible]
Speaker 5:Sean, our leadership in science and industry, our hopes for peace and security, our obligations to ourselves, as well as others all require us to come make this effort to solve these mysteries, to solve them for the good of all man, and to become the world's leading space bearing nation. We set sail on this new sea because there is new knowledge to be gained and new rights to be won, and they must be won and used all the progress of all people for space science, like nuclear science and all technology has no conscience of its own where they, it will become a force for God. Oriel depends on man. And only if the United States occupies a position of preeminence, can we help decide whether this new ocean will be a sea of peace or a new terrifying theater of war? I do not say that we should, Oh, we'll go unprotected against the hostile misuse of space any more than we go unprotected against the hostile use of land or sea. But I do say that space can be explored and nasty without feeding the fires of war without repeating the mistakes that man has made and extending his rent around this globe. Ours, there is no strife, no prejudice, no national conflict in outer space as yet it's hazards a hostile to us. All it's conquest deserves the best of all mankind and its opportunity for peaceful cooperation may never come again. But why some say the moon, why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain five 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic. Why does rice play Texas? We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon
Speaker 1:[inaudible]
Speaker 5:To go to the moon in this decade and do the other thing. Not because they are easy, but because they are hot, they caused that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we're willing to accept. One. We are unwilling to postpone and one we intend to win and the others too.
Speaker 1:Yeah,
Speaker 5:It is. For these reasons that I regard the decision last year to shift our efforts in space from low to high gear, as among the most important decision that will be made during my incumbency in the office of the presidency in the last 24 hours, we have seen facilities now being created for the greatest and most complex exploration in man's history. We have felt the ground shake and the air shattered by the testing of a salmon C one booster rocket many times as powerful as the Atlas, which launched John glamour generating power equivalent to 10,000 automobiles with their accelerator on the floor. We have seen the site where five F1, rocket engines, each one as powerful as all eight engines of the Saturn combined will be clustered together to make the advanced Saturn missile assembled in a new building to be built at Cape Canaveral, as tall as a 48 story structure, as wide as a city block. And as long as two lengths of this field within these last 19 months, at least 45 satellites have circled the earth. Some 40 of them were made in the United States of America, and they were far more sophisticated and supplied far more knowledge to the people of the world than those of the Soviet union. The Mariner spacecraft
Speaker 1:[inaudible]
Speaker 5:This spacecraft now on its way to Venus is the most intricate instrument in the history of space science. The accuracy of that shot is comparable to firing a missile from Cape Canaveral and dropping it in this stadium between the 40 yard lines. Transit satellites are helping our ships at sea do stair a safer costs. Tyra satellites have given us unprecedented warnings of hurricanes and storms, and we'll do the same for forest fires and iceberg. We have head off failures, but it's all about us, even if they do not admit them and they may be less public to be shown.
Speaker 1:[inaudible]
Speaker 5:Sure. Well, we are behind and we'll be behind for some time in man flight bot. We do not intend to stay behind and in this decade we shall make up and move ahead.
Speaker 1:[inaudible]
Speaker 5:The growth of our science and education will be enriched by new knowledge of our universe and environment by new techniques of learning and mapping and observation by new tools and computers for industry medicine, the whole, as well as the school technical institutions, such as rice will reap the harvest of these games. And finally, the space effort itself while still in its infancy has already created a great number of new companies and tens and thousands of new jobs space and related industries are generating new demands and investment and skilled personnel. And this city and this state and this region will share greatly in this growth. What was once the furthest outpost on the old frontier of the West will be the furthest outpost on the new frontier of science and space.
Speaker 1:[inaudible]
Speaker 5:Your city of Houston with its man spacecraft center will become the hot of a large scientific and engineering community. During the next five years, the national aeronautics and space administration expects to double the number of scientists and engineers in this area to increase its outlays for salaries and expenses, the$60 million a year to invest some$200 million in plan and laboratory facilities. And to direct our contract, a new space efforts over$1 billion from this setup in this city, to be sure all this costs us all a good deal of money. This year space budget is three times what it was in January, 1961. And it is greater than the space budget of the previous eight years combined that budget now stands at 5 billion,$400 million a year, a staggering sum though, somewhat less than we pay for cigarettes and cigars every year space expenditures
Speaker 1:[inaudible]
Speaker 5:Bass expenditures will soon rise Samoa from 40 cents per person per week to more than 50 cents a week for every man, woman and child in the United States fall. We have given this program a high national priority, even though I realized that this is in some measure, an act of faith and vision for, we do not now know what benefits await us, but if I were just saying my fellow citizens, that we shall send to the moon 240,000 miles away from the control station in Houston, a giant rocket, more than 300 feet tall, the length of this football field made of new metal alloys, some of which have not yet been invented capable of standing heat and stresses several times more than have ever been experienced, fitted together with a precision better than the finest watch carrying all the equipment needed for propulsion guidance, control, communications, food and survival on an untried mission to an unknown celestial body, and then return it safely to where re-entering the atmosphere at speeds of over 25,000 miles per hour causing heat about half that on the temperature of the sun, almost as hot as it is here today and do all this and do all this and do it right. And do it first before this decade is out.
Speaker 1:[inaudible],
Speaker 5:I'm the one who's doing all the work, so I'll get to stay cool for a minute. However, I think we're going to do it. And I think that, uh, we must pay what needs to be paid. I don't think we ought to waste any money, but I think we ought to do the job and this will be done in the decade of the sixth. It may be done while some of you are still here at school at this college and university, it will be done during the terms of office of some of the people who sit here on this platform, but it will be done and it will be done before the end of this decade. And I am delighted that this university is playing a pot and putting a man on the moon as part a great national effort of the United States of America.
Speaker 1:[inaudible]
Speaker 5:Many years ago, the great British Explorer, George Mallory was to die on Mount Everest, which I asked, why did he want to climb it? He said, because it is there spaces and we're going to claim it and the moon and the planet today, and new hopes for knowledge and peace today. And therefore, as we set sail, we ask God's blessing on the most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure on man has ever inbox.
Speaker 1:[inaudible].