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OPENING REMARKS OF
REPRESENTATIVE ROBERT S. WALKER
SUBCOMMITTEE ON SPACE SCIENCE AND APPLICATIONS
JULY 22, 1987

Good morning. I want to join the Chairman in extending a warm welcome to Dr. Sally Ride, on this, her final appearance before the committee as an official NASA witness.

This is a very important hearing that we are holding today. NASA has been an agency in the doldrums. Following the tragic loss of the Space Shuttle Challenger in January of last year, and the series of accidents that have plagued the few remaining expendable launch vehicles, NASA has lost virtually all of the momentum that had carried us forward into what had appeared to be a bright space future for America.

I must admit that I am deeply concerned over the direction that NASA appears to be headed. This agency was established with the clear mission to be conducting cutting-edge research and development. This is an agency that was expected to be always extending the frontiers of our knowledge further and further into the unknown. But the perception on this Committee is that NASA is becoming mired in the day-to-day operational problems of operating the space shuttle system, of procuring ELV services to launch existing payloads, and finally, in the development of the space station. The Committee obviously supports each of these programs, and they are all important. But, they appear to be