VP Pence: SpaceX Crew-1 launch proves NASA is back, President Trump has secured America’s leadership in space

America celebrated another historic milestone at the Kennedy Space Center on Sunday with the successful launch of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-1: the first operational mission of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program to the International Space Station and only the second time in nearly ten years that American astronauts launched into space from American soil.

The launch of the Resilience spacecraft is the culmination of four years of renewed leadership in space. It’s a tribute to the courage of our astronauts, the ingenuity of the men and women of NASA and SpaceX, and the unrelenting vision of President Donald Trump.

After nearly ten years of neglect that saw NASA rely on other nations to send our astronauts into space, NASA’s SpaceX Crew-1 launch continues a new era of American astronauts returning to space on American rockets.

The four-person crew of the Crew-1 mission includes three American astronauts: Shannon Walker, Victor Glover, and Mike Hopkins, as well as a Japanese astronaut, Soichi Noguchi, representing a strategic ally of the U.S. space program. These courageous astronauts took flight with the hopes and prayers of the people of two great nations.

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As President Trump said in his inaugural address, “We stand at the birth of a new millennium, ready to unlock the mysteries of space.” And that’s exactly what we’ve done.

The launch of the Resilience spacecraft is the culmination of four years of renewed leadership in space.

 

Our administration recognized what the American people have known for more than a half a century – that our security, our prosperity, and our very way of life, depend on American leadership—including American leadership in space.

But past administrations lacked the clarity of purpose and the conviction that propelled the United States to be a vanguard of space exploration.

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When we took office, the United States had not sent an American astronaut beyond low-Earth orbit in 45 years. Our mission to the Moon was treated as a triumph to be remembered, but not repeated. Across the board, our space program suffered from apathy and neglect.

From the very beginning, President Trump took action. He revived the National Space Council after it laid dormant for 25 years. We brought together the best minds in and out of government to revive the American space enterprise. At the president’s direction, we put an end to decades of budget cuts and drift in NASA’s mission.

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In our first year in office, President Trump signed Space Policy Directive-1, making it the national policy of the United States of America to return to the Moon, continue to Mars, and ensure that the next man and the first woman to set foot on the Moon would be American astronauts.

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SPD-1 marked a watershed moment in America’s space enterprise. President Trump finally gave NASA the clear direction and clear mission that it needed. As he said, we will “return American astronauts to the Moon for the first time since 1972 for long-term exploration and use,” not only to “plant our flag and leave our footprint,” but we will go there to “establish a foundation for an eventual mission to Mars.”

The president’s ambitious vision has led our nation into space farther and faster than ever before. And unlike the last few administrations, we’ve had the budgets to match it. With the strong bipartisan support of leaders in Congress, President Trump signed into law the largest NASA budget since the days of the Apollo program.

Under President Trump, we’ve been removing out-of-date regulations to unleash America’s pioneering space companies and forge the technologies to blaze new trails into space and create American jobs for the future. We’ve restored confidence in the opportunities of space and helped drive incredible economic growth. Studies show that the space industry will actually generate more than a trillion dollars in revenue annually in the next two decades.

Finally, we are leading in space for the security of the American people. As nations around the world increased their investment in space, this president took the decisive step to ensure that America remains as dominant in space as we are on land, in the air and at sea. For the first time in more than 70 years, we established a new branch of our Armed Forces: the United States Space Force.

America has always been a nation of restless pioneers, ever-striving to explore uncharted territories, reach new horizons, and venture into the unknown to expand the boundaries of human knowledge.

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Together, we’ve summoned the courage to dream bigger, to work harder, and we’ve gone forward with the same confidence of trailblazers who came before us. With Sunday night’s launch of the Resilience and her courageous crew, NASA is back and President Trump has secured American leadership in human space exploration for decades to come.

Godspeed Resilience!

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