We believe this venture safer and more affordable than any other spaceflight ventures that the U.S. has had, |
We can afford to build the station and finish its assembly, or we can afford to use what's there [for research]. But we cannot afford to simultaneously do both. |
We do not shrink in NASA from criticism of our engineering processes, our decisions or anything else. |
We focused on redefining the station assembly sequence in fact to concentrate on assembly, and we are largely deferring utilization and we are paring logistics to the bone. We don't like that, but confronted with a choice between having a high confidence to be able to complete the assembly of the station and deferring utilization, or utilizing it heavily as we built it and possibly not finishing, we chose the former course. |
We have a construction project (international space station) we are working on and we need the shuttle to do it ... but we are not going to go until we are ready to go. |
we have been restricted to low Earth orbit for far too long and that the proper focus of our nation's space program should be the exploration of the solar system. |
We have substantial schedule slack at this point, almost a full year. So we would have to have substantial difficulties that we do not now envision in maintaining our flight rate in order to start any consideration of contingency plans. |
We have to negotiate an acceptable deal, an acceptable financial agreement with the Russian side. |
We just weren't as focused as we should be. |
We learned how to design solid rocket boosters . . . with no further failures. We got that from the Challenger crew, so that is part of the learning process, I'm afraid. |
We learned how to design solid rocket boosters ... with no further failures. We got that from the Challenger crew, so that is part of the learning process, I'm afraid. |
We look like we're in pretty good shape. ... Based on what I know now, we're ready to go. |
We may not be able to make the exact completion date that we desire, ... But we will complete it. |
We plan on working out together three or four times a week. Year-round baseball is something we can do here. |
We simply cannot afford all of the missions that our scientific constituencies would like us to sponsor. |