Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 2245) to authorize the President, in conjunction with the 40th anniversary of the historic and first lunar landing by humans in 1969,…
Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 2245) to authorize the President, in conjunction with the 40th anniversary of the historic and first lunar landing by humans in 1969, to award gold medals on behalf of the United States Congress to Neil A. Armstrong, the first human to walk on the moon; Edwin E. ``Buzz'' Aldrin, Jr., the pilot of the lunar module and second person to walk on the moon; Michael Collins, the pilot of their Apollo 11 mission's command module; and, the first American to orbit the Earth, John Herschel Glenn, Jr.
Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks on this legislation and to insert extraneous material thereon.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Today we mark and celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing on the Moon on July 20, 1969. On that date, an 11-year-old boy stayed in a hotel room in San Juan, Puerto Rico, all day long--while his parents went to St. Thomas with his sister--and watched in awe to see mankind take this enormous step forward. That 11-year-old boy was me. And if somebody had said to me at the time, One day you will be standing in Congress and celebrating this day, marking this day, I would have said what every other 11-year-old boy would say, Oh, come on. That's ridiculous.
But here we are celebrating this day, marking this day explaining what it means to all of us in conveying a Congressional Gold Medal to Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Michael Collins, and John Glenn, the first American--and the third human being--to orbit the Earth. Certainly this was the greatest technological achievement of any time, anywhere on this planet by human beings.
But for many of us, it was more than that. For many of us it was the most important moment of our lives.
Think about it. What would you choose as the most important moment of your life? For some of us it would be the fall of the Berlin Wall; for others, it might be the election of Nelson Mandela to lead South Africa and end apartheid in that country; and for sure for others it would mean the election of Barack Obama as the first black President of the United States.
But for many of us, it would mean that time, 40 years ago today, when men landed on the Moon and for the first time, and the only time, in our history visited our celestial neighbor. That's exciting, and it's good to look back on that time and to ask ourselves what led to that moment.
Everybody attributes that moment to President Kennedy, the leader of the new frontier. President Kennedy used these words to spur us to take this action. He said as follows: ``We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one that we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win.
``Many years ago, the great British Explorer George Mallory, who was to die on Mount Everest, was asked why did he want to climb it.
``He said, `Because it is there.' Well, space is there,'' Kennedy told us, ``and we're going to climb it, and the Moon and the planets are there, and new hopes for knowledge and peace are there.
``And, therefore, as we set sail,'' Kennedy said, ``we ask God's blessing on the most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure on which man has ever embarked.''
That's what President Kennedy said, that this was the greatest adventure on which man has ever embarked, and he was right. These astronauts, these brave three, they crossed dead space for almost a quarter of 1 million miles. They landed with less than 25 seconds of fuel remaining when they finally reached the Moon, and when they reached that Moon, they were only there for 21\1/2\ hours. Their moonwalk was only 2 hours and 37 minutes. They brought back a mere 47 pounds of Moon rock, but they inspired everyone on this planet. One- fifth of all of this planet was watching at that moment on TV. One out of every five human beings. That's pretty good ratings, Mr. Speaker.
And when the landing occurred, what we heard was the following: ``The Eagle has landed.'' The eagle meaning the American eagle, because this was an assertion of our superiority as a Nation, our fortitude, our determination, our discipline, and our resourcefulness. That's what led us across that deep space in only 8 years from the first time when President Kennedy set forth this goal to the time that we actually landed on the Moon. ``The Eagle has landed.'' The American eagle has landed.
But then during the moonwalk, we heard another theme. When Mr. Armstrong first put his foot down on the Moon, when Neil Armstrong put his foot down on the Moon he said the following: ``One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.'' Not just Americans, but all mankind.
And when these brave explorers left behind their inscription, the inscription said something very important: ``We came in peace, for all mankind.''
And when Buzz Aldrin was returning, the day before the flight actually landed back on the Earth, he said the following: ``This stands as a symbol of the insatiable curiosity of all mankind to explore the unknown.''
So on that day 40 years ago we learned a lot about ourselves. We learned a lot about what kind of people human beings really are. The first thing we learned is that in our heart we are explorers. We have that spark to see what's on the other side of that hill and then go and find it, and that spark is what led us 50,000 years ago to cross as far as Australia all the way from Africa. And 15,000 years ago one of my ancestors went as far as eastern Siberia in the midst of the Ice Age. And now, today, we see it's possible to explore this whole planet, and that just makes us want to explore other areas as well.
I have visited 175 countries myself. I have that urge to see, to explore, to look beyond the next hill, and it's what makes us human beings. Wolves howl at the Moon; human beings go there.
And we've also learned that these challenges that we pose for ourselves, these goals that we have for ourselves, we reap rewards from just seeking those goals, from pursuing those goals. In this case, NASA developed integrated circuits which led to the modern computer age. They developed computer-directed machining, which is used throughout manufacturing today, including in computers. And they developed fuel cells, which could very well be the key to our energy future. And all of that was done through the Apollo program for less than $150 billion in today's money, which is actually less than, in many cases, the costs of the war in Iraq for 1 year.
We've also learned something else important about it. When we visited the Moon, we looked back on the Earth, and we have in that day 40 years ago the roots of the environmental movement. Earth Day was first celebrated barely 9 months later on April 22, 1970, because when we went to the Moon and we looked back on the Earth, we saw ourselves. We recognized how fragile the Earth really is.
And Joni Mitchell best captured that in a song that she sang, these words from her song, ``Refuge of the Roads.'' She wrote:
``In a highway service station, over the month of June was a photograph of the Earth, taken coming back from the Moon.
``And you couldn't see the city, on that marbled bowling ball, or a forest, or a highway, or me here least of all.''
And so we recognize in that moment, when we looked at the entire Earth, the entire planet, we didn't see individuals, we saw all of us, and it created a newfound respect for the environment.
But beyond that, we reached the realization that we're only beginning to appreciate right now 40 years later, and that realization is this. We are one planet; we are one people. This is not a planet of blacks versus whites; we are one. This is not a planet of men versus women; we are one. This is not a planet of the young versus the old; we are one. We are one species, one set of human beings, one people, proud of our accomplishments, this above all, to visit the Moon.
And when we return to the Moon, as we're scheduled to do 10 years from now, I hope that we'll say not just,
``One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,'' but I hope we'll say, ``Today the Moon, tomorrow the stars.''
I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, I want to note that what the accomplishment was here was to make America number one in space exploration, and I look forward to the time when we are number one in health care, when we are number one in education, when we are number one in meeting our human needs and making a 21st-century workforce.
The thing that inspired people from President Kennedy's words was the desire to be number one, and that's something that we can and will accomplish, not only in this particular part of human endeavor but across the board.
Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.
