For Immediate Release
January 15, 2004

Global Message

From remarks by President Bush, 1/14/04

President Bush's new plan to explore space and extend a human presence across the solar system has three goals:

• Complete the International Space Station by 2010.
• Develop and test a new manned spacecraft, the Crew Exploration Vehicle, by 2008, and conduct the first manned mission no later than 2014.
• Return to the moon by 2020, as the launching point for missions beyond. Beginning no later than 2008, we will send a series of robotic missions to the lunar surface to research and prepare for future human exploration.

NASA's current five-year budget is $86 billion. President Bush proposes reallocation of $11 billion within that budget, plus the addition of roughly $1 billion over the next five years.

The United States travels in space because the desire to explore and understand is part of our character. That process has brought tangible benefits that improve our lives in countless ways.

Space exploration has led to advances in weather forecasting, communications, computing, search and rescue technology, robotics, and electronics.

Our investment in space exploration helped create our satellite telecommunications network and the Global Positioning System. Medical technologies that help prolong life began with technology engineered for use in space.

In the past 30 years, no one has set foot on another world or ventured farther into space than the distance from Washington to Boston. It is time for America to take the next steps.