For Immediate Release
January 14, 2004
Vice President's Remarks to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory
JPL Visitor's Center
Pasadena, California
2:58 P.M. PST
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Thank you all very
much. And thank you for that warm welcome. It's an honor today to be
here, a beautiful day in Southern, California, at JPL, and to spend
some time with America's most dedicated and successful scientists and
researchers. And I appreciate, as well, the hard work of our NASA
team, Sean O'Keefe, Fred Gregory, as well as the director of this
outstanding facility, Dr. Charles Elachi, and all of the employees
gathered here today at Jet Propulsion Laboratories. (Applause.)
And I want to personally bring you the warm wishes of the President
of the United States, George W. Bush, who joins me in thanking all of
you for your hard work and your dedicated service to the nation.
The Jet Propulsion Lab has a proud history that extends back nearly
seven decades. Scientists and engineers here made vital contributions
to military aviation in World War II; developed crucial ballistic
missile technology in the early days of the Cold War; launched into
orbit Explorer One, America's first satellite; and designed and
deployed the Voyager spacecraft, which are now both approaching our
solar system's edge.
And today, of course, you are capturing the nation's imagination
with the Mars Exploration Rovers. I have just taken a tour of the
Rovers' operations center here at the lab, had a tremendous briefing,
but don't worry, I did not touch the controls.
The Spirit mission is showing your ingenuity in its absolute
highest form. You have landed a five-foot tall Rover on a harsh planet
over 100 million miles away, and already we are receiving pictures and
data that have changed our conception of Mars. And just hours from
now, the Rover built here in Pasadena will begin moving across and
through the Martian soil. (Applause.) Each of the hundreds of people
here who worked on this project can be enormously proud of the
mission's success -- and you can know that people all across the
country, indeed, around the world, are thrilled and inspired by your
work.
Earlier today, in Washington, President Bush visited NASA
Headquarters and outlined his vision for a second great age of space
exploration. Our goals are aggressive -- to complete the International
Space Station by 2010, to send manned flight beyond Earth's orbit in
2014, to return to the moon by 2020, and to use our presence on the
moon as a platform for missions to Mars and beyond.
These aims are ambitious. They're difficult, and they're very
demanding. The effort will be repaid many times over in scientific
advancement, useful new technologies, the discovery of resources on
Earth and beyond, and the discovery of more about ourselves. Our
continuing journeys into space will pose countless challenges. Yet we
will embark on these missions with confidence, because we have chosen
exactly the right people to do the job.
The President and I appreciate the outstanding work performed by
everyone at the JPL. You are using your talent and your dedication for
the benefit of your country and all mankind. America is proud to lead
the world into space, and the American people are proud of all of you.
Thank you very much.
END
3:02 P.M. PST
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