Washington, D.C. – Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, a Senior Member of the House Committees on Judiciary, Homeland Security, and Budget, and the Ranking Member on the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism Homeland Security and Investigations, and a strong supporter of NASA, released the following statement in celebration of the 49th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing:

“On July 20th, 1969, the spaceship was a long way from home. Blasting off from Cape Canaveral four days prior, Commander Neil Armstrong, Command Module Pilot Michael Collins, and Lunar Module Pilot Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin had been hurled from our orbit at an escape velocity of 24,200 miles per hour. With them were cameras, various scientific instruments, and the now famous three-by-five foot U.S. flag to be erected on the surface of the Moon. They also carried two other U.S. flags—to be brought back and flown over the houses of Congress—the flags of the 50 States, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories, the United Nations flag, as well as those of 136 foreign countries.

“But what they carried that fateful day was more than a collection of instruments and national symbols. They carried fear—of going where no human had gone before. More than fear they carried courage—for courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the resolute fulfillment of duty in spite of overwhelming fear. And more than courage they carried hope—that despite the bloodshed and weapons of mass destruction that defined the Cold War, humanity could stand together with bated breath for this new, brave step into the future.

“On the afternoon of July 20th at 4:18 PM Eastern, more than 200,000 miles away from Earth, the lunar module Eagle carrying Aldrin and Armstrong settled down at an angle of no more than four or five degrees on the right side of the Moon as seen from Earth. From Tranquility Base, Armstrong immediately radioed Mission Control: ‘Houston, the Eagle has landed.’

“At 10:56 PM, Armstrong put his left foot to the Moon—‘one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind,’ he remarked.

“It was the first time in history that man has ever stepped on anything that has not existed on or originated from Earth.

“We celebrate today not only to chronicle the extraordinary voyage of Apollo 11, but also to remember the efforts of thousands of America’s brightest who stretched the bounds of human imagination with this accomplishment. I am tremendously proud to say Houston’s very own Johnson Space Center, then named Manned Space Center, was pivotal in guiding the spaceships Columbia and Eagle to their place in history. Even after the Gemini and Apollo Missions, Houston has been the international hub of manned space flight ever since. Johnson Space Center scientists, engineers, astronauts and other staff members have been tasked with controlling flights from Skylab and the Apollo-Soyuz missions through the Shuttle program and beyond. Johnson Space Center is also the training base and home for our nation’s astronauts and the site of Mission Control, where a talented cadre of flight controllers monitors the work of our women and men in space.

“I would like to remind all of us that the American space flight program is not merely a collection of scientific achievements. I celebrate the legacy of Mary Jackson, NASA’s first black female engineer who joined the Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia in 1958. Her pioneering work not only contributed immensely to the success of the Mercury space program—the predecessor to Gemini and Apollo—but also to influenced the hiring and promotion of women and people of color in NASA’s science, engineering, and mathematics careers. I celebrate the legacy of President John Kennedy, who in 1961 in my home city of Houston declared to the world that ‘We choose to go to the moon within the decade and do the other things, not because they are easy but because they are hard.’

“I invoke the words of astronomer and writer Carl Sagan, who eloquently wrote on the scope and audacity of the President’s proclamation:

“The Moon was a metaphor for the unattainable: ‘You might as well ask for the Moon,’ they used to say…We would use rockets not yet designed and alloys not yet conceived, navigation and docking schemes not yet devised, in order to send a man to a world not yet explored…and we would bring him safely back, and we would do it before the decade was over…This confident pronouncement was made before any American had even achieved Earth orbit.”

“To anyone who might doubt America’s ability to make good on this commitment, President Kennedy said, ‘this country of the United States was not built by those who waited and rested and wished to look behind them. This country was conquered by those who moved forward—and so will space.’” He, like the Apollo program, represented the best of America’s can-do spirit; an idea of tomorrow, a relentless march toward achieving the full promise of America, and an understanding that we, the people—all of us—have a place in that future and a role to play in bringing it about.

“The Apollo program was certainly a quintessentially American triumph. In that summer of 1969, we decided to use technologies developed to hold humanity captive under the specter of nuclear war to capture the imagination of humanity. In that summer of 1969, we conveyed to the world an optimism about technology and an enthusiasm for the future. In that summer of 1969, we reached for the stars and three Americans—Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins—nearly had them in their grasp.

“But our best days are not behind us. For as long as we have been able to stand on two legs, we have been travelers. We had emerged from the caves and come down from the trees; we conquered continents; weathered oceans; we have connected the world in no way it had ever been connected before.

“So I ask today, what comes next?

I believe space exploration remains part of our national destiny, and I am working in Congress to ensure that the future of NASA is one of continued progress. Today is a reminder that space exploration and research done at NASA will inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers, and will provide the technological advances needed to keep America’s economy strong.

“I urge that we all continue supporting our space program, celebrate the sciences, and encourage innovation and international scientific cooperation. I ask that we work together to someday, like that moment on July 20th, 1969, we are able to stand together, arm in arm, to take the next small step forward—a giant leap for mankind.”