To confirm full ownership rights for certain United States astronauts to artifacts from the astronauts' space missions.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 4158) to confirm full ownership rights for certain United States astronauts to artifacts from the astronauts' space missions.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on H.R. 4158, the bill now under consideration.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I want to begin by thanking members of the Science, Space, and Technology Committee, Republicans and Democrats, for their bipartisan support of this legislation. I especially want to commend my good friends Lamar Smith and Eddie Bernice Johnson for their help and for their early support.

H.R. 4158 would confirm full ownership rights to our Nation's first generation of astronauts who flew during the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo era and who received or were allowed to retain artifacts, mementos, and other personal equipment from their missions. H.R. 4158 covers all flights beginning in 1961 through the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, which flew in July of 1975.

From the first days of our manned spaceflight program through the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, at the conclusion of a mission NASA managers routinely allowed astronauts to keep mementos of their flights. In some instances, astronauts were also given certain pieces of expendable equipment. The range of items included space suit emblems, expendable space suits, checklists, flight manuals, and disposable flight hardware salvaged from the jettisoned lunar landers.

A majority of these items have been in the personal possession of the astronauts for 40 years or more. Over the last decade, NASA has begun to challenge the astronauts' ownership of these mementos. This issue was first brought to my attention late last year. I was surprised to learn that NASA had, on an irregular basis, intervened several times to claim ownership.

Early this year, NASA Administrator Bolden met with a small group of astronauts to discuss the agency's artifacts policy. Following the meeting, through NASA's press office, Administrator Bolden issued a statement saying:

These are American heroes, fellow astronauts, and personal

friends who have acted in good faith, and we have committed

to work together to find the right policy.

He went on to say:

I believe there have been fundamental misunderstandings and

unclear policies regarding items from the Mercury, Gemini,

Apollo, and Skylab programs, and NASA appreciates the

position of the astronauts, museums, learning institutions,

and others who have these historic artifacts in personal and

private collections.

This bill seeks to eliminate in any further ambiguity about Apollo- era artifacts that were received by the astronauts. It simply says that astronauts who flew through the end of the Apollo program will be granted full right of ownership of any artifacts received from their missions. If we don't pass this bill, the artifacts and the astronauts face huge financial risks arising from donations, gifts, and sales already completed.

These men are heroes. They're great heroes. Sadly, we had to say good-bye to one of these heroes just last week. They took extraordinary risks to establish American preeminence in space and, by doing so, helped our country become a world leader. I think it's a miscarriage of justice that today NASA should seek return of these very same mementos and keepsakes.

I reserve the balance of my time.

[From NASA News, Jan. 9, 2012]

NASA Administrator Meets With Apollo Astronauts; Agency Will Work

Cooperatively To Resolve Artifact Ownership Issues

(By David Weaver and Bob Jacobs)

Washington, DC.--The following is a statement from NASA

Administrator Charles Bolden regarding the ownership of early

space exploration mementos and artifacts:

``Earlier today, I had a good meeting with former Apollo

astronauts Jim Lovell, Gene

Cernan, Charlie Duke, Rusty Schweickart and other

representatives of former astronauts and agency personnel,

where we discussed how to resolve the misunderstandings and

ownership questions regarding flight mementos and other

artifacts.

``These are American heroes, fellow astronauts, and

personal friends who have acted in good faith, and we have

committed to work together to find the right policy and legal

paths forward to address outstanding ownership questions.

``I believe there have been fundamental misunderstandings

and unclear policies regarding items from the Mercury,

Gemini, Apollo and Skylab programs, and NASA appreciates the

position of the astronauts, museums, learning institutions

and others who have these historic artifacts in personal and

private collections.

``We also appreciate their patience and will explore all

policy, legislative and other legal means to resolve these

questions expeditiously and clarify ownership of these

mementos, and ensure that appropriate artifacts are preserved

and available for display to the American people.''

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Palazzo), the chairman of the Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee.

Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.

I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I rise in support of H.R. 4158, to confirm full ownership rights for certain United States astronauts to artifacts from the astronauts' space missions, and I thank the leadership of Mr. Hall and all of the cosponsors.

This is a necessary bill which will protect our iconic early astronauts from needless harassment. This bill will ensure that any U.S. astronaut who participated in the historic Mercury, Gemini, or the Apollo programs will be able to keep the space artifacts which are still in their possession from those missions.

At the time of these missions, it was accepted practice that astronauts could keep expendable equipment like checklists and hygiene kits as mementos of their missions. However, this was an informal policy, and those astronauts lacked paperwork establishing ownership over these items.

This bill will protect those astronauts from any claims made by the Federal Government regarding any of these artifacts. Further, the bill protects our national interest by ensuring that any lunar rocks or other lunar material remain property of the United States.

While I do support this bill and its passage today, I would be remiss if I didn't express my concern about a possible omission. This bill does not cover any of the shuttle-era astronauts. The first American woman in space and the first African American in space were both exclusively shuttle-era astronauts, and there were many other notable astronauts during this era.

I think these astronauts are no less national heroes than the Apollo- era astronauts and also no less deserving of that protection.

Now, I understand this is a more difficult issue since NASA has not been able to identify when its own internal policies changed regarding astronaut artifacts. But I do think we need to figure that out and then address those astronauts' situation as soon as possible.

I do want to thank Mr. Hall for his leadership and for working with all of us on this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my good friend and Texas colleague, Science, Space and Technology Committee Chairman Ralph Hall, for taking the lead on

this bill and bringing it to the floor today. My hope is that after the House passes this bill the Senate will act quickly and send it to the President for his signature.

The problem this bill addresses is to confirm the ownership of mementoes the Apollo astronauts received from their journeys. I was first contacted one year ago about this problem by my constituent, Apollo 16 moonwalker Charlie Duke, who now lives in New Braunfels, Texas and also chairs the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation.

The Scholarship Foundation is one of the beneficiaries from the sale of such artifacts, and they have provided over $3 million in scholarships to college students studying science and engineering so they too can aspire to be astronauts.

At the end of the Apollo program, these mementoes were deemed to be of little value, and NASA was simply going to throw many of these items in the trash heap of history--checklists with scribbled equations and calculations in the margins, a camera and other personal effects the Apollo astronauts were offered to keep for themselves.

However, in the intervening 40 years, these mementoes took on a greater historical context, just like mementoes from past wars or famous people take on greater significance. Unfortunately, over-zealous NASA and the Justice Department lawyers recently started filing law suits against Apollo astronauts--our American heroes--and started questioning their integrity.

This is wrong. And this bill clarifies the ownership of these artifacts in the possession of our astronauts.

Chairman Hall, thank you for doing the right thing--once again--for our astronauts.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 4158. This legislation will resolve a conflict that has emerged within NASA over the last decade regarding the ownership of artifacts from the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs. Left unresolved, as Chairman Hall pointed out, astronauts, their families, and those to whom they transferred, donated, or sold artifacts may not have clear title to them. If NASA persists in its efforts to reacquire these items that were initially received by the astronauts 40 years or more ago, significant financial consequences could befall them.

In the 1960s, as NASA began the Mercury program, agency managers allowed astronauts to carry a small number of mementos in their spacecraft. As the spacecraft became larger and larger and mission duration increased, the agency's policy evolved to allow astronauts to retain expendable personal gear such as shaving equipment, undergarments, notebooks, and expendable space suits.

During the lunar landing phase of the Apollo program, the policy further changed to allow astronauts to retrieve from the lunar lander certain pieces of hardware that would have been destroyed had it remained in the lander.

With full knowledge and consent of program managers, the astronauts were allowed to fly personal mementos as well as retain certain pieces of equipment. It is incredible to me that NASA now wants to penalize those who acted in good faith by attempting to retrieve these items.

H.R. 4158 is a necessary bill to bring closure to the debate and uncertainty regarding ownership of a small class of space artifacts. I urge all Members to support this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 4158, to Confirm Full Ownership Rights for Certain United States Astronauts to Artifacts from the Astronauts' Space Missions Act.

H.R. 4158 preserves the rights of astronauts who served on the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo missions in the 1960s and 1970s, through the time of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Flight, to retain full and complete ownership of certain artifacts such as personal logs and flight manuals that were used in training or during their flights.

For many years, it was an accepted practice for astronauts to keep mementos of their training and flight missions.

However, confusion surrounding NASA's informal policies on artifacts have led to attempts to repossess those artifacts years later.

This has resulted in questions concerning the status of items that astronauts have had in their possession for years, if not decades, or donated to museums, universities, scholarship funds, and so forth.

I support this bill, because it clarifies that the ownership of those artifacts rests with the astronauts who served during those missions, while preserving the current policy that ownership of moon rocks and lunar material will continue to rest with the Federal Government.

Mr. Speaker, a few weeks ago, we lost an American hero, Neil Armstrong. He and his fellow astronauts fulfilled the dreams of a grateful nation by pushing the boundaries of space.

One small way to show our gratitude is by passing this bill. I urge my colleagues to support it.