President Bush announces new space initiative

(15 Jan 2004)
1.US President George Bush being announced and entering the room
2. SOUNDBITE (English) George Bush, US President:
''Inspired by all that is come before and guided by clear objectives today we set a new course to Americas space programme, we will give NASA new focus and vision for future exploration. We will build new ships to carry man forward in to the universe, to gain a new foothold on the moon and prepare for new journeys to the worlds beyond our own. I am comfortable in delegating these new goals to NASA under the leadership of Sean O'Keefe.''
3. SOUNDBITE (English) George Bush, US President:
''It is time for America to take the next steps. Today I announce a new plans to explore space and extend a human presence across our solar system. We will begin the effort quickly using existing programmes and personnel. We'll make steady progress, one mission, one voyage, one landing at a time. Our first goal is to complete the International Space Station by 2010. We will finished what we have started. We will meet our obligations to our 15 international partners on this project. We will focus our future research aboard the station on a long term effects of space travel on human biology. Environment of space is hostile to human beings. Radiation and weightlessness pose dangers to human health and we have much to learn about the long term effects before human crews can venture through the vast voids of space for months at a time. Research on board the station and here on Earth will help us better understand and overcome the obstacles that limit exploration. Through these efforts we will develop the skills and techniques necessary to sustain further space exploration. To meet this goal we will return the space shuttle to flight as soon as possible, consistent with safety concerns and the recommendations of the Columbia Accident Investigation board. The shuttle's chief purpose for the next several years will be to help finish the assembly of the International Space Station. In 2010, the space shuttle, after nearly 30 years of duty will be retired from service. Our second goal is to develop and test a new space craft, the crew exploration vehicle (CEV) by 2008 and to conduct the first man mission no late than 2014. The crew exploration vehicle will be capable of ferrying astronauts and scientists to the space station after the shuttle is retired. But the main purpose of this space craft will be to carry astronauts beyond our orbit to other worlds. This would be the first spacecraft of its kind since the Appolo command module. Our third goal is to return to the moon by 2020 as the launching point for missions beyond. Beginning no later than 2008 we will send a series of robotics missions to the lunar surface to research and prepare for future human exploration. Using the CEV we will undertake extended human missions to the moon as early as 2015 with the goal of living and working there for increasingly extended periods of time. Eugene Cernan who is with us today. The last man to set a foot on a lunar surface said this as he left: 'We leave as we came, and God willing as we shall return with peace and hope for all mankind. America will make those words come true.''
4.SOUNDBITE (English) George Bush, US President:
''With the experience and knowledge gained on the moon we will then be ready to take the next steps of the space exploration, human missions to Mars and to worlds beyond.''

STORYLINE:


a crew of seven.


In its place, he called for development of a new Crew Exploratory Vehicle, capable of carrying astronauts to the space
station and the moon.



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