ice for our country was great. we are here today because of what they did in 1960s and we honor them today as a part of the vietnam commemoration 50th anniversary program and i'm honored to be a part of it today. god bless america. [applause] ..

members of congress, distinguished guests colleagues from the department of defense, past and present. members of the vietnam commemoration advisory committee the, thank you for being here today. thank you to the organizers an commemorative partners of this important event and thousands like it across the country and the entire vietnam commemoration effort. most importantly, thank you to the vietnam era veterans and their families who join us. you honor us with your presence. in a year of anniversaries for this years marks the 150th anniversary of the end of our civil war, the 70th anniversary of the end ever world war ii, the 65th anniversary of the start of korean war, today we gather to remember the vietnam war and to honor those who served in it. we remember the 50th anniversary of president johnson's executive order

establishing the vietnam service ribbon and we honor our 7.2 million living vietnam era veterans. fair fallen comrades in arms including those still unaccounted for and the families of all who served. that here a's proud soldiers, sailors, airmen marines and coast guardsmen, a part after deep line of warriors patriots, who served and fought in lexington and concord in gettysburg and midway and kay son and more recently in fallujah and helmand. some of those vietnam veterans are here today. some bear the wound of war or the wear of age. some carry with them memories of fallen comrades, american fathers uncles, brothers, sisters, who didn't make it home and others proudly wear vietnam

veteran lapel pins and bold star buttons to remember the service and sacrifice of years past. on behalf of president obama and the entire department of defense, i thank all of you for your service. i thank you for those sacrifices and i thank you for the lessons you have taught all of us and continue to teach us. one of the reasons the united states has excelled is that as a nation we learn and innovate and one reason why we have the finest fighting force the world has ever known is that our military is a learning organization. we learn from successes we learn from setbacks. we take time to delve into our experiences and always strife to do better. the vietnam war tut us many lessons, many hard-won, some difficult to swallow but all of them have made us a better country and a better military and there are two that i believe

are particularly important to remember this day. first, we leave no one behind. we're not the only military that with ethos nor are we the only nation with a p.o.w.-mia accounting effort. but there are few that have such a steadfast and sustained commitment which is more than raising the iconic pow-mia symbol around the nations. it is about a promise we make and work hard to keep. thanks in part to the staunch advocacy of vietnam veterans and pow-mia families, the department of defense has 650 people devoted to accounting and missing, searching for recovery and identifying their remains. including 1627 still missing from the vietnam war.

i saw some of that continuing effort on my trip to hanoi last month where i visited one of our pow-mia accounting offices. the second lesson is that we must support our warriors regardless of our feelings about the war. unfortunately that was a lesson some learned the hard way in the vietnam era but i am pleased by and again we have many vietnam veterans to thank for it, support for's veterans and servicemembers including the post-9/11 g.i. bill and how our troops today are welcomed home. i want to take this opportunity to thank you, our vietnam era veterans for that lesson and again welcome all of you home. [applause]

vietnam era veterans and their families helped us learn those lessons and made sure we never forget them. some mentor quietly men and women in uniform and travel to airports to welcome home those return from iraq and afghanistan. some do so more publicly continuing service in government offices in this capitol and elsewhere across washington and across the country including my colleagues secretary john kerry and senator john mccain. and some are with us today. and i want to take a moment to say a few words about the next speaker. chuck hagel was a soldier. he has been a short, and a distinguished secretary of defense. and he remains one of our most thoughtful statesmen. and i'm proud to have been able to call him a friend for many years. in vietnam then sergeant hagel

led an infantry squad during the fighting that followed the tet offensive. stories of his bravery and sacrifice there are well-known and throughout the rest of his life in public service chuck dedicated himself to those who served to normalizing an improving relations with vietnam, to bringing those home still missing and be sure we remember the vietnam war's lessons. thank you, chuck. [applause] and thank you again, to all of the vietnam era veterans here and around the country. may god bless you and your families for years to come. [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, the honorable chuck hagel former secretary of defense.

[applause] >> to my friend ash carter, thank you. i appreciate your your kind and thoughtful words. they could be applied to every vietnam veteran in this audience an across this country. but, ash, thank you for your continued leadership and support for our veterans. thank you all for being here. mr. speaker, distinguished leaders, distinguished fests, thank you for allowing me to participate. as a former united states senator i don't follow scripts so you can not follow anything i'm going to say on the monitor.

that is one of the few perogatives we have. that is not always held me in good stead, not following scripts in my career. as most of you understand. those independent streaks that vietnam veterans have and all veterans possess and america's better for it. i take some liberty in saying that on behalf of all vietnam veterans and their families thank you. and thank the leadership of the congress for recognizing the sacrifices and the service of our vietnam veterans and tear families. today -- their families. today's ceremony comes one day after the president of the united states met with the leader of the communist party of vietnam. as we look to the future, not

the past, to build a more hopeful world, a more hopeful world for all people. we also learn we learn from the past. and we're determined not to make the same mistakes in the future. in 2000 president clinton signed into law a bill that congressman ron kind, my dear friend former senate colleague, vietnam veteran, senator max cleland and i sponsored to establish the veterans history project which has been very ably administered by the library of congress. many of you here today have given interviews and presented your oral history of your service in the military

particularly our vietnam veterans. you will hear excerpts today from some of those world histories recorded as a result of this project. i will conclude my remarks this afternoon with reading two brief passages from an interview i gave a few years ago for the book voices of war. my brother tom and i served together, side by side in vietnam in 1968. we were one much those 39 pairs of brothers that served in vietnam. 1968 was the worst year in vietnam. hard to imagine today but we sent over 15,000 young americans home dead in one year.

the astounding sacrifices and leadership and commitment that i witnessed, the uncommon valor, that i witnessed during that year in vietnam i have never seen since. it is projected, not in only the film that sample i don't think narrated also the soul, minds, history, the hard of everyone here. and i think now throughout america. after one year back from vietnam i was finishing college. and i was working full time as a reporter for a local station in omaha and i attended my first veterans day ceremony after

coming back from vietnam. this is what i said in the interview in the oral history. anyone who has ever served their country in uniform and has experienced what no one else has experienced can never decouple and be decoupled, from that experience. your recognition of all of the other people who also served at have been through what you have been through, just to be near them is something special. to be near somebody and know that he or she knows that you know. i think that's why the vietnam veteran memorial is so powerful. you don't have to say a word. a word need not be uttered. so that first veterans day after i had returned from vietnam i

wanted to be near those other veterans. i didn't expect any recognition. i just wanted to be a part of a group of people that had done something very special for their country. it didn't mean any of us were any better americans, anymore patriotic or certainly any smarter but we had done something most people will never do. there is not a draw goes by that you pull back on some little thing, some little thing about your life, because as we know life is not about the big things. there are very few big things that happen to each of us during our lives. it is the day-to-day small things that matter. and you recall your experiences in vietnam and in service. you recall those experiences you had with others. in the army in vietnam a tolerance and understanding. a reaching beyond to understand more than the obvious.

i will conclude with this short paragraph. as tom and i were waiting early one morning after our armored personnel carrier had been ambushed and a lot of our colleagues had been wounded, we were waiting for choppers medevacs to come pick us up early in the morning. and it had been a bad night. and as i remember sitting on that track both my brother and i wounded and my brother being unconscious, waiting for that dust-off, i said to myself that if i ever get out of this i'm going to do everything i possibly can to insure that war is the last resort the last resort that we as a great

nation, as a free people as people, ever called upon to settle disputes. the horror of it the pain of it, the suffering of it, people just don't understand unless that they have been through it and always fought by the little guys at the bottom. there is no glory in war, only suffering. we are a better stronger nation today, because of the tremendous sacrifices that our vietnam veterans and their families made for this country and i'm very proud to be part of that generation and proud to be here today representing our vietnam veterans. thank you very much. [applause]

>> ladies and gentlemen, the honorable corrine brown, representative from florida. >> god has blessed america because of your service. you know when you're going to get a birth certificate and you die you will get a death certificate and that little time in between what you've done to make this a better place. let's give the vietnam veterans a big hand. [applause] thank you so much for your service and i have to acknowledge my personal senator florida, bill nelson is a vietnam veteran. let's give him a hand.

he is here. [applause] now, to my assignment. honor and sacrifice. a new winter of the condolences from the mother of her husband's best friend. she shared about the respect that should be given to all soldiers and the faith hope and healing from sacrifice. dear mrs. smith, thank you for your beautiful letter. words fail me now they really do. so i don't know what to say accept thank you for remembering me. i'm glad that you and mr. smith and michael knew. i felt words would reach michael and i'm glad they did. i loved james so and will always love him. he was my world, and even though we have only one year of marriage, we had other years of

just loving and sharing. i feel privileged to have been the wife of such a wonderful, warm man such as he was. i'm very proud of all that he stood for and all that he was. and all of the it took for him to make this supreme sacrifices he did. life without him is almost inconceivable. but he is in a better place now where nothing can hurt him. i know that. everything he did was based on his love and faith in god and how i must build my life for myself and our child based on that same strength. my relationship with james is no longer physical. it is almost divine i think. my words sound hollow to me as i read over them because feelings as mine are impossible to express but i want you to know i

appreciate your thoughts and your concerns. i want you to note that i feel as i do about his death, i have to accept it was god's will and as james way of wanting to die that the way he would want me to feel and love him as i do it would be wrong to be bitter. he was buried in all the dignity and honor a soldier such as he deserves, a full military funeral. i know michael would want me to know that. now i am expecting a blessing in october. i have a baby. then i will have part of james to love and care and i will have a purpose once again. i let you know where my little treasure arrives, love susan. god has blessed america. [applause]

>> ladies and gentlemen, the honorable scott rigel, representative from virginia. [applause] >> honoring the warrior spirit. reknowned sociologist morris janowitz said the warrior spirit is not easily defined based on a psychological motive for a man to seek success in combat regardless of his personal safety. hear how one retired army major general described a memory that had a lasting influence. soldiers are amazing people. it doesn't matter whether they come from an all-volunteer force or a draft force or whatever else. i've always expect ad lot from the people i work with. and hope they expect a lot from

me. the one thing that is stuck with me over the years, was when i was at west point and i was the company commander of company 40-2. they only had two regiments at the time. one of the plebes was a guy named bill. he became a lieutenant. he was a plebe in my can be at west point and darn if he didn't show up as one of my platoon leaders in vietnam. in this one instance he went on to visit the other platoons and then on to his own platoon. we were getting ready to go out. it was supposed to be easy a milk run. but it wasn't. we ended up in middle after pretty good fight. we were in bunker and fighting in a bunker complex. it's a dirt business with hand grenades. young bill went in and pulled the pin on his grenade.

someone yelled, throw it. and he did, yet it blew up just a foot from his face and his arm was gone half his face was gone and his leg was hit. the medic said it didn't look like he was going to make it. that usually means you're not going to make it. i retired 16 years ago. i was told a west point graduate had moved in down the street. and it was bill. he made it. [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, the honorable richard blumenthal united states senator from connecticut. [applause] >> i'm a united states senator but i'm still new so i do follow

scripts. and i have the honor to say thank you to all of the vietnam veterans who are here today and all across the country and to read a memorandum honoring the performance of duty written by admiral thomas moore, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff between 1970 and 1974 to all active military in december of 1973. subject, performance of duty. upon termination of the longest and in many respects the most difficult period of combat in our nation's history i give you my personal salute for a job well-done. the tremendous sacrifices and in particular the supreme effort by our comrades who were lost during the war have not been in

vain. we were called upon by our nation's leaders as we have been in the past to carry out orders in furtherance of national policy, and objective. few can argue against the common will and determination shown by our armed forces while attaining these objectives. you have performed superbly. your spirit have remained steadfast throughout the human qualities and greatness handed down from past military generations have remained undiminished. now the long conflict has come to a close but our tasks remain. in coming months we must make every effort to account for those still missing in action while prepare ourselves for the future. as we move ahead i have every confidence that when our accomplishments and your

accomplishments are chronicled in the pages of history, it will be written that you performed second to none. in the longest, most difficult and in many cases the most frustrating and complex war in the history of our nation. [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, united states army band and downrange combo. ♪

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♪ [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, the honorable nancy pelosi democratic leader of the house of representatives. [applause] >> good afternoon.

that's quite an act to follow, isn't it music of the era. while they were singing respect, secretary hagel said that in 1968 when he was in vietnam that was the number one song of the time. so that combined with his beautiful, moving story really what a day for all of us. thank you, secretary hagel. thank you all for being here. mr. speaker, leader mcconnell, leader reid. speaking for the commemorative partners senator johnny isakson what a beautiful presentation to set us off. commemorating the day 50 years ago when president johnson signed the order creating the vietnam service leader. 58 years later it is our privilege to come together to recognize and honor veterans and families of vietnam war. men and women whose strength and humility and valor echo so

powerful through each of the letters that why were just read. highlighting values at the heart of this 50th year commemoration. as we recognize the courage and sacrifice of these men and women let us also recognize that we have not done full justice in meeting the needs of our vietnam era vets and their families. let us also recognize that the vietnam vets formed their own self-help grassroots organizations and i especially want to recognize one in my district in san francisco swords to plowshares founded in 1974. the decades have healed much of the emanyonety between united states and vietnam as weigh mark the 20th anniversary of the norm salization of relations between our two countries. as was mentioninged by secretary carter many vietnam era veterans and veterans of other wars served in the congress. we were all very proud when our

colleague, congressman peterson, became ambassador peterson early ambassador to vietnam. he had been there before as a tenant of the hanoi hilton. so it was quite remarkable to see him go back as the ambassador. while we're mentioning heroes, let me recognize sam johnson, our colleague who is a bonafide american hero. [applause] but as we recognize the time that has passed let us recall president lincoln once warned us of the silent artillery of time wearing away our memories of the sacrifices of past conflicts. the passing years must not, can not dim the honor and bravery of the three million american men and women who answered the call to serve our country in a war a world away.

time will never diminish the sacrifice of the millions of families whose loved ones were fighting in a difficult and divisive war overseas. we will never forget the memory of the, the memory of those who lost their lives and families of the 58,000,253 americans who were -- 58,253 americans who were killed in the vietnam war. tens of thousands wounded and p.o.w.s and 1600 missing in action has been mentioned anytime any of us goes to vietnam or interacts with vietnam leadership. this is a subject that we discuss. a moment ago, the band played what secretary hagel said was the number one song in 196 we all remember that, well, some of you weren't born yet but the rest of us remember that. it is "respect."

r-e-s-p-e-c-t. respect brought us all here today. respect brought us here with communities across the nation with their own 50th anniversary vietnam war commemoration across america. today, 50 years after the creation of the vietnam service medal, gathered in the halls of the united states capitol at the heart of our democracy, we stand united to express the immense respect and recognition of our vietnam veterans have rightly deserved. and indeed as indeed as well as in words we must repay the great generation of american veterans who served in vietnam. god has truly blessed america with all of the men and women who have served our country in uniform from every era but today on behalf of the american people, we say a special thank you to our vietnam veterans. thank you.

[applause] >> ladies and gentlemen the honorable harry reid, democratic leader of the united states senate. [applause] >> 2,709,218 number of americans who served in vietnam. each one of the nearly seven million servicemen and women who fought by air land, sea in vietnam and millions of others who served during the vietnam era. we especially today honor sacrifice made by 15,582, family friends and countrymen. i have had the good fortune to serve in the senate with veterans of vietnam war.

they're my friends. as i have come to understand the price of their service, what they did, what they were asked to do as mere boys, they have become my heroes. senator bob kerrey of nebraska is a hero. after college he enlisted in the navy. he became a seal. i asked bob one of the first times we spent alone, tell me about his engagement you had. it was very dark night. he led a team on an island off the coast of vietnam. they climbed up a big cliff. he said it was darkest night in the history of the world. and knew exactly where the enemy group was located and got there no one was there. so they had their shoes off of

course, having climbed a cliff and started walking back to where they came from. and then the dark of the night they ran into the enemy. immediately someone drop ad grenade. and as we know severely injured bob kerrey. i said what did you do then? these are not the words that he used but the enemy was dispersed. he had a real way with words. i so admire bob kerrey. he was awarded the medal of honor, bronze star purple heart. chuck hagel, we know secretary of defense senator from nebraska, as was bob kerrey. he is here with us today. he is a hero of mine. chuck was just 21 years old when he arrived in vietnam.

eventually being assigned to the same infantry unit with his brother tom. tom saved chuck's life. he saved his brother's life, grabbing diffusing a live grenade. but chuck, also saved his brother tom's life, pulling his brother's unconscious body from their armored vehicle after it was hit with a mine. senator hagel was awarded vietnam cross of gallantry a couple of pure pep hearts, army commendation medal and combat infantry badge. senator max cleland, i have so much admiration for him. whenever i have a bad day i think of max cleland and what he has to so honor his country and if there were ever a hero in the world he's it.

he was a captain in the army. 6'4" in height. he lost both legs and one of his arms in vietnam. he was awarded the vietnam service medal, silver star bronze star. senator john mccain is a hero. he came to the house together. we came to the senate together. he was a combat pilot, navy pilot when his plane was shot down over hanoi. he was taken prisoner very quickly. confined to north vietnamese prison five 1/2 years. three years in solitary confinement. he was brutally tortured. awarded bronze star, purple heart, legion of merit, distinguished flying cross, navy commendation medal. senator larry pressler was a rhodes scholar harvard law

graduate harvard undergraduate, law degree. when he enlisted in the army. he served two combat tours in vietnam. secretary of state john kerry, certainly is a hero. as is every vietnam senator i have talked about. john was lieutenant in the navy. he was in charge of command of a swift boat navigating the savage rivers of vietnam. was awarded three purple hearts silver star, bronze star for his gallantry. senator tom carper served three tours of duty as a flight officer in the navy. flew hundreds of hours in a p-13 surveillance aircraft. former senator and secretary of the navy jim web was a marine lieutenant during the war. he was awarded the navy cross, silver star, two bronze stars, two purple hearts. he authored several books about vietnam. senator tom heart kip was a navy pilot in the vietnam era.

former senator chuck robb lyndon johnson served two tours of combat duty in vietnam of the was awarded the bronze star. former senator bob smith of new hampshire served a year of active duty in vietnam with the united states navy. as a senator bob introduced a resolution to create a senate select committee on missing pows. i had the good fortune serving on that committee a year. to investigate servicemembers who were missing in action or were thought to be held as prisoners. all heroes any one of them without any distinction or exception. each of these fellow senators served our country and did so with distinction, not unlike the millions of other vietnam veterans who participated in that war in one way or the other sadly though we've heard today that these veterans of vietnam era haven't always received the

praise and gratitude they earned. hopefully today gives, a brings a little bit of that that tells them how much we really appreciate all they did for us. much has changed over the past 50 years. even a relationship with vietnam has changed evolving since our two countries re-established diplomatic relations 20 years ago. what started that diplomatic relationship? two vietnam veterans. no two are more important than john kerry and john mccain who, some thought swallowed a lot of pride but those two men have always been courageous and went over there started talking and made it easier for all the rest of us to do so. so i so admire these two men for all the reasons i mentioned. think about that. as we heard today the leader of communist party, leading perp that runs vietnam was here

talking to the president of the united states yesterday re-establishing, as in more deeper form our relationships. but what hasn't changed in this 50 years is our debt to the american vietnam veterans. so today we thank you, all millions and millions of you. your sacrifices will always be remembered. [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, the honorable mitch mcconnell, majority leader of the united states senate. [applause] >> each morning a dawn breaks

over the kentucky capital in frankfurt. bars of light stream across the dome. a hall of democracy brightens with renewed purpose. and overlooking it light pours into 200 tons of granite and more than 1100 engraved names, each a kentuckian who made the ultimate sacrifice in vietnam. an enormous sundial, casting a solitary shadow, marks the anniversary of every kentuckian who fell that same day so many years ago. kentucky's vietnam veterans memorial perched above a potent symbol of our democracy, powerfully honors the fallen and

the more than 125,000 kentuckians who served. it reminds us that dawn beckons for a country because of the sacrifices of the men and women of our armed forces. it remind us that americans live free through their courage and their determination. the debt of gratitude our country owes to veterans is enormous. americans routinely demonstrate gratitude to our military men and women today. we showed it after world war ii but circumstances were different in the vietnam era. spit not roses. scorn, not gratitude. awaited too many young servicemembers upon their

return. what a kuhl homecoming for them -- cruel homecoming for them. what a heartbreaking tragedy for their families. it should redouble our determination to insure america's debts are repaid to them. today's ceremony is but one example of our country's resolve. but it is hardly the only one. over the years americans have worked hard to show those who fought in vietnam that gratitude deferred will not be gratitude denied. so often they have done so with two simple but powerful words thank you. saying thank you to every american who served in vietnam. saying thank you to the millions of veterans still with us. saying thank you to the families who once dreaded every knock on the door and every sleepless

night. and also saying to the thousands of americans who fell in service to their country, to those who still remain unaccounted for to every loved one left behind, saying that our country honors you. that our country thanks you. that our country will not forget you. not just today but every day. kentucky honors its fallen vietnam veterans in unyielding granite, overlooking a symbol of enduring democracy. in washington too, the wall of the vietnam memorial sits just beyond the capitol continually reminding americans of the sacrifice, the honor and the thanks each of us owe to so many others. our country will not forget it.

[applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, the honorable john boehner, speaker of the house of representatives. [applause] >> a lapel pin has been created to recognize the contributions and sacrifices of all of those who served on active duty from november 1st 1955, to may 15th, 1975. i would like now to invite representatives from the vietnam veterans leaders of the united states army, navy, marine marine corps, to receive lapel pinning. the lapel in the program is available to those who served on active duty during the war.

our hope is that the vietnam veterans that americans appreciate the contributions an sacrifices made to maintain the freedoms that we hold so dear. please stay seated and hold the applause until the end of the pinning ceremony.

[background noises] [inaudible conversations]. [applause]

[applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, the united states army chorus and band, purging zone. ♪ >> and now as the chorus and band perform the armed forces medley, we invite you in the audience who have served who are currently serving to please stand and join in as your song is presented.

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[applause] >> ladies and gentlemen please stand as dr. barry black the chaplain of the united states senate gives the benediction. >> let us pray. eternal god superintendent of nations, owner of the world and all that dwell therein, we thank you for what our eyes have seen, our ears have heard and our

hearts have felt. lord we're grateful for this opportunity to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the vietnam war. to acknowledge the sacrifices of our veterans and their families. to show gratitude for the contributions of diverse individual groups agencies, organizations, and allies. as we receive inspiration from laudable lives, inspire us to also live with exemplary excellence. may we more than self, our country "love and mercy" more than life. lord empower us to leave the

world better than we found it, as we strive to do your will on earth even as it is done in heaven. we pray in your sovereign name, amen. >> ladies and gentlemen, please be seated and remain in your seats for the departure of the official party.

[inaudible conversations]. ♪ >> c-span2 brings the best access to congress live debate and votes from the senate floor hearings and current public policy events. every weekend booktv with non-fiction books and authors. live coverage of book festivals from around the country and a behind-the-scenes look at publishing industry. c-span2, the best access to

congress and nonfiction books. >> house subcommittee this morning looks at challenges facing the international space station, among them the ability to deliver supplies to the orbiter following unsuccessful attempts over the past year. the hearing of the house space subcommittee chaired by bruce babin of texas. live on c-span2. . . >> good morning. i like to welcome everyone to our hearing today and i want to

thank our witnesses for taking time to appear before our committee. since 2013 the iss program has experienced a number of challenges. as a can-do nation america has always been committed to identifying challenges addressing them and advancing to reach out and reach our goals and destiny. we have that same commitment with the iss. during this time astronauts have experienced water leaks in their suits three times with one incident occurring during a spacewalk. on april 26, 2013 from an unmanned russian progress cargo vehicle damaged the radar deflector, reflector when docking with the iss. on january 14, 2015 a false alarm of an ammonia leak caused the crew to retreat into the russian segment. on october 28, 2014 and orbital site is unmanned cargo launch failed just after launch. on april 20, 2015 a separate

russian cargo vehicle failed to reach the iss. on june 7, 2015 upland reduced by the iss using a doc progress vehicle failed but eventually was successful after troubleshooting. on june 10, 2015 a visiting soyuz vehicle unexpectedly fired its engines without being commanded. most recently on june 28 2015, a spacex unmanned cargo launch failed as well. all of these incidents highlight the challenges of operating in space. they remind us that nasa's contractors engineers and astronauts must be ever vigilant. these events have challenged the iss operations but the fact that the program was able to effectively respond to these

setbacks is a testament to nasa, the iss partners, and contractors. we do not know the root causes of some of the accidents yet but once we have more information we will be better suited to review those individual events. in the meantime this hearing allows us to evaluate the operational status of the iss, repeat efforts to utilize the unique assets and assess the prospects for future operations. the iss is one of the most complex and expensive man-made objects ever built. the american taxpayers currently invest approximately $3 billion per year in this laboratory. we must ensure that every dollar is spent effectively and efficiently. the iss offers a unique microgravity environment for scientists and engineers to utilize. nasa recently released its

benefits to humanity publication this week detailing the many benefits that iss provides back to our lives here on earth. from advances in our understanding of human health and performance to our use of new materials to the utilization of robotics and satellites, the benefits we receive from iss are many and diverse and remarkable. in addition to the benefits here on earth, the iss offers the conditions necessary to prepare and develop critical technologies for deep space and long duration human spaceflight missions. successive nasa authorization the directed the administration to utilize the iss for this purpose. the human research program and advanced exploration systems program at nasa are on the cutting edge of developing the systems we need to send humans ever deeper into the solar system than before. right now captain scott kelly is on day 104 of its year-long

mission to study the effects of long duration human spaceflight. in addition to the utilization efforts of nasa's research programs, a nasa authorization act of 2005 designated part of the iss as a national lab of a nasa authorization act of 2010 directed the administration decided cooperative agreement with the nonprofit to manage it. nasa's selected the center for advancement of science and space, or cases delete this effort. the government accountability office noted in a recent report that they had made great strides in fulfilling the mandate under the law. but that more work needed to be done to ensure that measurable progress is being made in a quantifiable manner. i hope you're from nasa today that the agency is making rockers towards answering this recommendation from gao.

as we keep an eye on the present operation utilization of the iss we must also look to the future. last year the administration announced support for the center of the iss program from 2020 the 2024. at present federal law limits the life of the iss to 2020. apps in action from cars to extend it, administration would be required to begin close out of the program. there are many questions about the request for this extension. the bipartisan house passed a nasa authorization act of 2015 required the administration to provide a report to congress on efforts by the administration to utilize the iss and how to quantify benefits back to the nation for the required investment for this extension. it also requires the administration to develop a governmentwide utilization plan

for the iss to ensure that every minute the facility is in orbit we're doing what we can to get the most out of it. these reports are critical for congress to understand the issues that inform whether to extend the iss. this committee has the responsibility to ensure that the american taxpayers are getting all they can from every dollar that they send to the federal government. i believe this investment is worthwhile and that the benefits far outweigh the costs. support for the iss and its operations in utilization is not a partisan issue. it is an american issue and i look forward to working with my friends on the other side of the aisle and our partners in the space industry to understand how we get on the operational challenges facing the iss program. i now recognize the ranking member of the gentlelady from

maryland for an opening statement. >> thank you very much mr. chairman. and good morning and welcome to our distinguished panel of witnesses. i appreciate holding this hearing, now the international space stationinternationalspace station addressing operational challenges. as i listened to the chairmen i am reminded that the challenges a nasa faces and agency faces in operating the international space station to i would be more concerned if we were not able to overcome some of those challenges. and i give credit to the crew and the partners that that is true. about a year ago i in the members of our committee sat indiscriminate opportunity to communicate with our massacre that was aboard the international space station including nasa astronaut rick weissmann who is from maryland. maryland. i would've i promised in crabcakes and, unfortunately

one of those accidents that the chairmen prefer to destroyed my crabcake delivery but rick visited with me in my office just a couple of weeks ago and we made okay on that. what happens when you connect real-time with our astronauts are living and working in carrying out research in this amazing laboratory that's orbiting 250 miles above us every 90 minutes is really quite an inspiration. thanks to nasa, the crews aboard the iss in so many schoolchildren have also the opportunity to ask questions and learn about human spaceflight through similar downlink events that we experience in this room. yet in the thrill of seeing and hearing those who inhabit our on orbit laboratory, we can sometimes forget just how difficult demand and risky it is to maintain and operate the international space station, because sometimes we think it is

just ordinary and it turns out it is rather extraordinary. orbital debris malfunctions to key systems both internal and external to the iss and human health hazards pose risk to the iss is still the and its crew. the unfortunate loss of the spacex seven cargo resupply mission less than two weeks ago along with the earlier losses of the russian progress and horrible cargo missions over the past eight months are against dark reminders of the risks and challenges that nasa and its partners have to face. the successful management of these risks for more than 15 years is a testament to nasa and its industry, and international partners. i'm confident that spacex orbital aca, in collaboration with the faa and nasa will identify and resolve the problems that led to the launch failures the resume cargo resupply to iss as soon as it is sacred about the iss actually has been resupplied through its

partners. mr. chairman we don't have any time to spare. iss is a tempera facilitated his authorized through 2020 and given the operations cost about $3 billion in taxpayer dollars every year, the cost is projected to increase coupled with the challenges involved in sustaining operations, we will need to ensure that our vision for the iss is clear that her goals and objectives for using this unique facility are all lined with that vision to i'm pleased that the number of iss users has grown. we've had concerns about that raised here in this committee. in addition to nasa researchers a nasa supported academic researchers, the iss national laboratory management entity casis has drawn new commercial users including pharmaceutical companies to the iss. however, while the range of iss usage is expanded, the resources to support those activities are not.

funding for the iss research represents a mere 12% of the overall iss budget. in addition constraints on cargo transportation to the international space station as well as available power and precious crew time limit what research can be accomplished at the station and in that regard i know that many of us want to understand the implications of cargo resupply interruptions on plant iss research, crew operations and sustainability of the station. in addition, mr. chairman, there is critical work to be done on on the iss in areas of human health research and technology development that needs to be carried out if we're going to make progress toward a long-term goal of sending humans to mars. in january 2014 the obama administration proposed to extend iss operations until at least the year 2024. the administration has three rationales for the extension. to complete iss research that supports longer ration human missions beyond low-earth orbit

to garner societal benefits from iss research some of which we see here and to give nasa and private partners more time to transition to commercial cargo crew, cargo and crew a lie nation -- nasa to focus. debasing provides us the opportunity to examine those rationales in the context of the costs and risks and nasa and its initial partners will face interesting the iss for that length of time. so mr. chairman, we've a lot to discuss this one and want to thank our witnesses again for being here. and with that i yield back. >> thank you ms. edwards. i now recognize the ranking member of the full committee for a state that the gentlelady from texas. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman, for holding this hearing on the international space station. this really is an important topic and i look forward to the testimony of our panel of witnesses and welcome them. it is no secret that i've been a long supporter of the iss. it plays a unique role in

research, advancing human spaceflight and aspiring our young people. moreover, in addition to being an incredible engineering achievement, it provides a very visible demonstration of the benefits that can be derived from peaceful, international cooperation in space. failures of commercial cargo transportation missions to the iss remind us that spaceflight is not easy. failures will occur, and, unfortunately, these failures will have impacts on the program. we need to better understand those impacts as well as the plans for dealing with them going forward. and we need to know whether there are any lessons learned that need to be applied to the far more challenging commercial crew transportation program. i have said before that the iss is a perishable commodity.

we need to be clear on what nasa needs to accomplish with this unique laboratory while it is still operational. while the administration has proposed to extend the iss operations until 2024 maintaining the iss involves risk and at significant opportunity cost. we need to ensure that the iss is being used in a way that maximizes its productivity and value to the nation. in addition if we are to ensure that the need iss research and technology activities are carried out. it is clear that we are going to need to make the necessary investments. stack the iss research budgets do not communicate the message that we are serious about supporting the important research and technology efforts that can only be accomplished on the iss. that is a problem that congress could and should fix.

well, mr. chairman, we have a lot of issues to discuss today and i welcome our witnesses and look forward to a productive hearing to i think in deal to back. >> and two ms. johnson. if the our members who wish to cement additional opening statement, your statements will be added to the record at this point. at this time i would like to introduce our witnesses. bill gerstenmaier is the associate administrator of human exploration and operations mission directorate at nasa. our second witness today is john elbon, vice president and general manager of space exploration for the boeing company. testifying third is the honorable paul martin who have served as nasa's inspector general since 2009. our third witness is shelby oakley, acting director of acquisition and sourcing management for the government accountability office. today's final witness is dr.

james pawelczyk, an associate professor of physiology and kinesiology at the pennsylvania state university and a retired astronaut. in order to allow time for discussion, please limit your testimony to five minutes. your entire written statement will be made part of the record. i now recognize mr. gerstenmaier for five minutes to present his testimony. >> thank you, mr. chairman thank you for the opportunity to testify on behalf of myself and the men and women to work on the international space station. this is one of the most talented and dedicated international teams in the world. the iss is an amazing research facility. today on the iss during this expedition there are 329 research investigations in progress. these spam topics in of human research into how the human body performs in microgravity come of basic biology and biotechnology, physical science earth and space science, technology

development and education. there's never been this scope of research performed on a continuous basis in space. we are in the midst of a one year crew of expedition. this visual gives detailed information into the human adaptation and to the space environment with mission durations approximately equal to the mars transit time. we are also give a unique chance to do a twin study to see of the human genome changes when exposed to microgravity. we've kept a presence on the iss for almost 15 years. 83 countries from around the world have used the iss research. further private companies to do national laboratories and center for the advancement of science in space have used the iss. this week in boston with allies as users conference. this is an exciting time as many researchers are beginning to see the bandages of space research. the growth of non-nasa research is exciting and shows there's a generic interest in using the unique properties of space to investigate basic research

opportunities typically only done on the earth. space provides a unique window into any physical process that is affected by gravity. further the human body reacts in space with many conditions that mimic conditions facing the elderly. muscle wasting to immune system degradation and balance problems. using animal models, unique insight and potential new treatments for the elderly can be developed based on space station received the as the chairman stated operating under frontier space is not easy to in the past nine months three independent cargo vehicles were lost on the way to the iss. is shows the difficulty of living and operating in space. the lost vehicles have different designs, different heritage different manufacturing, different build processes and utilize different trajectories. the failure of these three systems shows the difficulty of launching and operating in space. we often think iss is only 250 miles away and the journey

is easy. this is not true. we are essential to operating the system at the edge of her engineering capability. were also often think that if only we provide more insight and oversight we can lower the risk of cargo delivery. unfortunately, the demands require, exposes to the same level of risk no matter how much insight we have to. but the inside can prevail and give us insight and help us understand the designed to make sure that we can end up with better designs. the right level of insight can reduce the design, can reduce and find design errors. too much insight to distract the teams from working on improving design. it's amazing even after these three values, the basic iss operations were not impacted. this is a david to the team that manage and operate the iss. they learn and limiting the hard lessons from the columbia tragedy that come with the iss

had operate without the shuttle for several years. management processes a logistics resupply techniques learned are proving their worth. however, these failures are not without consequences. several of the agency's performance goals associate with research and cargo flights will not be met. the isis program is reducing margins on iss to figure research. this will not be enough to recover the research impact. the delay in the soyuz crew flight which was required to allow the teams understand the progress daily require the iss to operate with three crew for pocketing three weeks longer than planned and will impact research crew ours. the impact of the loss also in real applications to students and researchers who lost cargo on the orbital flight only to lose the replacement and return to flight hardware again on the space exploit. they suffered a double loss. the loss of the international adapter can be accommodated schedule wise without impacting

the crew program but will result in a total loss to iss. iss is a phenomenal resource for the nation the research being done on iss can be done no place else. iss can serve as an innovation accelerator for private entrepreneurs, help nasa prepare for journeys beyond low-earth orbit, and benefited directly people on the earth. congressional support for iss to operations to release 2024 would be a positive sign to the international partners and future users the iss. operating under frontier is not easy and we do not get complacent and think iss operations are routine for easy. they are not. the iss team astana great job of managing the nevada. the iss team will continue to look for ways to improve the iss teams need to be given flexibility to manage and others need to understand the benefits of redundancy and how it can be used to provide robustness. the benefits will take longer to be realized that most innovation but the benefits of iss will exceed the expectations of all

involved. i would like to thank the committee for their support for human spaceflight, especially thethe opposition activity those with commercial crew as well as all right and iss. i look forward to your questions. thank you. >> yes, sir. thank you. i never recognize mr. alban for five minutes to present his testimony. >> chairman babin, ranking member edwards and members of the subcommittee on behalf of the boeing company thank you with the opportunity to testify today to provide an update on boeing's role in the international space station and united states as one of your constituents congratulations on your selection to lead this committee. boeing is actually proud to supported massive in the design and integration into some of the iss. as nasa's prime contractor boeing delivered the u.s. elements of the iss and provided system integration for the stage by stage assembly on orbit of all u.s. and international elements. we continued in the iss sustainable today.

on november 2 the world will celebrate 15 years of continuous presence in space human presence in space with international crews living and working aboard the iss. at a time when many decried a gap in america's space program as we transition from space shuttle to commercial transportation, we no iss know that america and our her partner nations are making advances in space every day. the international space station has been recognized as the largest and most complex international scientific and engineering project in history. and the world's largest endeavor in space to date. ongoing improvements are making iss even better. station brought together hardware and software from 16 countries around the globe and 37 states and more than 10,000 suppliers in our country. about the size of an american football field the iss is larger than a six bedroom house and as the intro pressurized

volume of the 747. iss is an engineering marvel, a beacon for international cooperation and a shining example of what can be achieved through strong leadership and unity of purpose on the have of humankind. as nasa's contractor for sustaining engineering of the iss, boeing is responsible for making the station and ensuring the full availability of unique resource laboratory for massacre international partners, other u.s. government agencies and private companies. in performing this role he continued to work with nasa to reduce the cost. over the past 10 years we have reduce the cost of our sustainable by more than 30%. these savings has enabled nasa to fund improvements such as a docking system, critical component. these improvements help keep iss operating at peak efficiency today and provide a basis for continued strong performance

well into the future. with nasa we've recently completed a tactical assessment of the usable life of major iss hardware component. our study indicates the station will be operable at least through 2028. long-term viability of the station is an important factor in continue to attract researchers to invest considerable time and preparing their experiments in space. the continuing reliability of iss and the improvements made to further enhance research capabilities are a boon to maximizing facility utilization to our work on iss enables many benefits and improvements. both to enable continuing human space exploration and to improve the quality of life here on earth. iss continues to be used for developing multiple technologies to support each space exploration. nasa is developing highly reliable life support system to address needs for future exploration habitation systems.

iss is attested from and how the body reacts to prolonged weightlessness and allows us to develop countermeasures now. we are hurting self sustain a skill such as growing food in space and recycling water. all these things are important to learn and understand before we explore farther into our solar system. research on iss has led to numerous improvements on earth from the medical field to earth observations to providing clean water in underdeveloped countries, to help diagnose and treat patients in remote areas. over the past several years i've had opportunity to interact with leaders in countries that are not engaged in iss orbit not have a space program. without exception and every one of these conversations about space exploration these leaders expressed a strong desire to be involved in space, and more specifically the international space station. they see the valley of iss to inspire their use to pursue s.t.e.m. education comes a great economy expanding industry and

to provide a significant source of national pride. this perspective from leaders outside the station international partnership recognizing the tremendous that of iss serves as a strong reminder to u.s. leaders and all who are charged with a care of this national asset and global resource but we must never take what we have in iss for granted that we must ensure the international space station is well-funded, fully utilized in meaningful high-value research. thank you. i look forward to your questions questions. >> thank you, mr. elbon. i never recognize mr. martin for five minutes to present his testimony. >> thank you for inviting us to be part of the discussion about nasa's challenges in operating and maximizing research on the international space station. a very timely topic in light of the loss of three cargo supply flights over the past eight months. the office of inspector general has issued four -- four report related to the topic of today's hearing.

including reviews and examine nasa's plan to extend station operations until 2024, and has contracts with private coverage of our cargo and crew to station. we have five more reviews related to this topic underway. including an examination of october's resupply better, nasa's efforts to manage health and behavioral risk for extended space exploration and challenges to international cooperation in space. our odd last september of nasa's plans to extend the iss reported the agency had identified no major obstacles to continue operations through 2024. however, we found nasa must address a series of technical challenges including ensuring adequate power generation in light of degradation of the station's solar arrays as well as unlimited ability to transport large replacement parts to the station. en masse officials estimate an

annual iss budget between three-$4 billion through 2024 we anticipate the cost may be higher. first, much of the projected increase is attributable to higher transportation costs and we found nasa's estimate for cargo and crew transportation optimistic. second most of the agency's international partners have yet to commit to station operations beyond 2020, and a decision by one or more not to participate could drive up costs for nasa. as noted in our report the number one operational risk for the iss program is ensuring the ability to deliver supplies and astronauts to station. while nasa is working with to commercial cargo providers for redundancy, they are now on hold pending the outcome of accident investigations and approvals from the faa and nasa. in addition to the loss of important spoken the failed cargo flights have affected nasa

research aboard station in at least three ways. number one by reducing available crew time due to a temporary delay in returning the station's crew complement to six astronauts. number two, by increasing cost to replace the lost research and number three, by delaying the return of experiments due to the suspension of flights by space expert the only company capable of bringing cargo back to earth. because nasa uses the iss as a research platform to study a variety of risks associate with human travel and long-term habitation in space it is an important part of its plan to send humans beyond low-earth orbit. we have reported in the past utilization of the iss for research has increased over the years but several factors continue to limit its full potential. for example until it's up to us to is brought aboard the station can nasa will not be in a

position to maximize crew time devoted to research. in addition come on board approval to devote substantial time to reconfiguring the iss to accommodate the commercial vehicles basalts will transport astronauts begin in 2017. to that point late lester nasa awarded $6.8 billion in contracts to boeing and spacex to complete development of the spaceflight systems for crew. but nasa's commercial crew program faces several significant hurdles including unstable funding, they need to provide timely requirements and certification guidance to contractors, and coordination issues with other -- with other federal agencies. the oig recently initiated a follow-up audit to review the status of nasa's commercial crew program. that concludes my prepared remarks. thank you, sir. >> thank you, mr. martin. i now recognize ms. oakley for five minutes to present her

testimony. >> good morning chairman babin ranking member edwards and ranking member johnson, and members of the subcommittee. thank you for inviting me here today to discuss gao's work on nasa's management of the international space station. as you know the united states has spent tens of billions of dollars to develop assemble, and operate the space station over the last two decades. the u.s. could spend billions more in coming years to further capitalize on the investment given the potential extension of operations to 2024. today i will discuss three areas. nasa's budget for iss second, then challenges that could affect increase use of iss and finally steps the nasa and again today to better document and assess progress in this regard. nasa continues to make a significant investment in iss each year. this investment is projected to increase over the next five

years mainly because of the iss program will begin to find commercial crew flights. in 2020 transportation costs will be over 55% of the projected $4 billion iss budget. unlike transportation cost cost to operate and conduct research on iss are projected to remain relatively stable through 2020. nasa officials have indicated that funding priorities for iss our crusade to end this petition, maintaining the facility and finally research. as a result in increases to transportation cost for operations costs could diminish available funding for research. furthermore, the potential increases to the iss budget as a result of the planned extension to 2024 are currently unknown. second nasa and casis faced several challenges that could never leave affect their efforts to increase use of iss for science. including cargo transportation

failures and delays, limited progress in raising additional funding for research and increased demand for crew time and facilities. recent mishaps of the commercial cargo vehicles have had a direct impact on both casis announce efforts to increase research on iss. for example, launch failures and delays have already resulted in the loss of casis sponsored research and increase cost almost $500,000. and let's not forget your crabcakes, ms. edwards. furthermore, additional increases are likely as a result of the most recent failure. for casis absorbing this increases has and could continue to be challenging because it has thus far been limited progress raising additional funds for science from external sources. for example in 2014, casis had only received a little over $9000 in contributions. however, as casis has seen an

increasing commitment from external donors. specifically in 2014 it received commitments of over $12 million. casis also faces challenges with competition for cable crouton and heavy demand for key facilities which limits the amount and types of extremist that casis can bring to iss. crouton is already allocated out of over 100%. to address this challenge nasa and casis are depend on commercial crew providers delivering promised capabilities as plan in 2017 to with these capabilities, nasa will be able to add a crew member to iss who will devote most of his or her time to research, effectively doubling research done. however, many technical challenges and nasa's ability to fund the commercial crew program could delay these efforts. finally, even if nasa and casis can effectively navigate these challenges, commission and return on investment is very

difficult and scientific research can often times take many years. in the short term it is essential that casis continues to make progress promoting research and achieving its goal of increased use of the iss. we reported in april that nasa and casis could do more to objectively define assess and report on such projects. for example, by this unimaginable targets or goals to its annual performance metric. nasa and casis concurred and agreed to take action in response. in conclusion potential extension of iss to 2024 will likely require significant continued investment. as a result ensuring the iss capabilities are being used to support significant scientific gains is critical. furthermore, demonstrating and commuting the return on investment could help support nasa and casis in achieving their shared goal of developing sustained commercial markets in low-earth orbit.

chairman babin ranking member edwards, and members of the subcommittee, this concludes my prepared remarks. i'm happy to take any questions that you. >> thank you, ms. oakley. now i'd like to recognize dr. pawelczyk for five minutes to present his testimony. >> thank you, mr. chairman, members of the subcommittee. good morning to you. i thank you for the opportunity to discuss the status of research using the international space station. it's the only platform of its kind and is absolutely essential to nasa's exploration goals. to prepare for this hearing you asked for specific questions and the like to briefly address each in the time allotted. you asked about opportunities and challenges. the augustine commission emphasized three unique stressors that future astronauts will face. prolonged exposure to solar and galactic radiation prolonged periods of exposure to microgravity, and confinement and closed relatively austere

quarters. all of these stressors are present in the iss environment. martian operations add more stressors. a dusty, jim environment and a gravitational field that's a little more than a third of our own. unless we improve our centrifuge capabilities on the iss, they are limited at the moment we risk of sending humans to mars with little or no knowledge of how the melanie biology respond over years in a gravitational field less than earth. to challenges dominate the landscape. limited crouton and limited access to the iss. we can reasonably anticipate that competition for time will become worse as the facility ages and demands to perform necessary maintenance become more acute. access is a matter of competing programs. casis sponsored research and. prechewed nasa sponsored

research, better carbonation between the two entities is needed. you asked about critical areas of research. the national research council life and physical sciences survey which was completed in 2011 at congresses request summarized in sequence 65 high priority research asks. furthermore, the study created to research plans. one with a goal of rebuilding a research enterprise, and the other with a goal of a human mission to mars. more about those in just a moment. you asked about priorities. prioritizing iss research isn't a new concept. in fact, we've been working on the problem for close to 15 years. but the key question for prioritization isn't scientific. it's programmatic. and get something like this. discovery research on fundamental research, or translational research take precedence in the mature years

of the iss research program? the answer to that question has to be provided by government. once those programmatic priorities are sequenced, can we prioritize the research? absolutely. the survey provide a very detailed scheme and used a unique criteria to do so. the processor operations ureters about that as well understood. casis receives its 50% allocation followed by human research, and technology demonstrations, and what resources remain are sent to biology, physical sciences and the science mission directorate. you asked about implications for extension come and criteria that congress should consider. i think one of the first test that congress should apply can be answered with a simple yes or no question. is nasa prepared to operate a robust research program through 2024? in my opinion the answer is an

unqualified yes exclamation point, absolutely. the transformation of this organization in the past five years has been nothing short of remarkable in the life and physical sciences. i have provided seven examples of that in my written testimony. but there are large knowledge gaps from mars missions that would be one year or longer. vig resort reported on this topic, and there are four areas where i'd like to see the report to a little bit further. first, the ig found that extension to 2024 would not provide enough time to mitigate 13 human health risks for a mars mission. i'm not quite prepared to accept that conclusion. there's simply too many degrees of freedom to establish useful risk criteria at this point in time. these risks need to the context provided by a thorough task analysis of future martian operations. second, the report did not address power down as to any

great extent and we need to return for additional research tasks. third, the ig emphasize average crouton isometric to quantify research utility. it's a good metric but i'm not sure it goes far enough. i think we need to work on a concept of efficiency and evaluate and approve efficiency of the research time we have. and found the ig noted research time is constrained with a six person clue crew. we need that seventh member. so my top recommendations on the following. prioritize the programmatic goals, review the essential resources for extended research including that seventh crewmember scientists slash but astronaut who's responsible is restricted at all to extend biological experiment that covers substantial portion of in a million lifecycle and a corporate martian gravity equivalents wherever possible. given the sufficient resources i am very optimistic that nasa can

deliver another decade of rigorous translational research. i century thank you for your support of the program and the opportunity to appear. >> thank you dr. pawelczyk. i thank the witnesses, all the witnesses for your testimony. members are reminded that committee rules limit questioning for five minutes. but china recognizes himself for five minutes. this question will be for mr. gerstenmaier and mr. elbon at a spacex mission had a new commercial crude talking mechanism of water filtration device, and a new spacesuit on board. can you explain the impact of a loss of these items, and how do you plan to mitigate these impacts? >> we will start with the international docking adapter that's scheduled for commercial

crude. it was lost. we wanted to two units on orbit before we begin commercial flights but we will still be able to believe to support the schedule. we will take the parts from a third unit that was being assembled as a spare or a backup, and work with the contract to with the contract detroit and extend that and get that delivered on time. the next docking adapter scheduled to go in the next several months and we'll figure out the right cargo flight to take it up in. one docking adapter would be sufficient to support the commercial crude program. i think we can accommodate that. biggest impact to us is the costs associated with not having to manufacture a third unit from the spare parts that remain. on a multi-filtration bed we think before the japanese transfer vehicle flies in august we should be able to get a new transfer bed manufactured against augustine work of the boeing corporation to help us expedite the work and we have plans in place to do that. we've been trending down on for

toxic organic compounds onboard on board the space station, so we're still in stable configuration with the bandwidth on over of the, continue to monitor carefully but we should be okay from a standpoint. a loss of the spacesuit and will probably not reconfigure one of the spaces we plan on returning a space station, to more repairs on on orbit and we will have that spacesuit of able. and again we've also put a contract to change in place to work with the orbital sciences corporation to look at caring spaces in the future for us. i think we medicaid all three of the concerns that you have. the impacts will be not significant and we can accommodate them but to our impacts with each one. >> thank you, mr. elbon spume colleges that what mr. gerstenmaier said. the most and it didn't bother from boeing's perspective is what the docking adapter the second unit is afford and will be ready to fly when we resume flight. the third you know the parts are available at our suppliers

in using a we are under putting a plan together to assemble the third unit to replace the one that was lost. as mr. gerstenmaier mention mentioned we're working very closely with nasa to understand the water filtration issued and to get those components ready to launch on the next resupply vehicles back up. so i agree that we are in good shape to support the crew on orbit. >> thank you. next question, nasa's airspace for mr. gerstenmaier nasa's airspace safety advisory panel has recommended that as nasa says iss life extension, it should also review the objectives for continued iss use and clearly articulate them to ensure that the cost and safety risks are balanced. given that human spaceflight and every risky that risk always needs to be weighed against the value to be gained by the endeavor. what are nasa's objectives for extending iss operations through 2024?

>> again, on the human research brought, as many medical investigations we're looking at that were described by other panel members about the radiation if i become a microgravity environment. we need to understand those and have those risks mitigated and understood before ready to go commit to longer endeavors in space. those all in plans, and place. we detailed investigations and work of the current one year expedition on board space station is addressing many of those issues and concerns. and that's moving forward. >> and finally for mr. martin, what insight does nasa into the mishap investigations being performed by orbital-atk and spacex? looking back at the apollo one accident, the challenger accident and the columbia accident, do you believe that investigations benefited from an independent review separate from the contractors or the program? >> thank you, mr. chairman.

my understanding is under the faa says the faa granted the license to the private contractors, both spacex and orbital-atk, under the contract they are leading to accident investigation. i believe with the orbital mishap that nasa has a separate review ongoing to try to get to the root cause of there. but there isn't the same kind of independent accident investigation board. if it were a nasa old bailey but i think, we are currently conducting a review that's going to look at some of the concerns we have about the independence of a contractor let accident investigation board. but it can% of the contract and the license for the faa that's the way it is intended to be. >> okay, thank you. that completes my questions. i now recognize the ranking member ms. edwards. >> thank you, mr. chairman, and take you to the witnesses again. mr. martin's report of september

september 2014 found that nasa's estimate for the iss budget, three to $4 billion per year through 2024 is overly optimistic. that was reiterated obviously in your testimony. and so i'm just really curious from mr. gerstenmaier, if you could talk to us about the basis of your estimates for projected crew and cargo transportation costs to support iss. and i would note and that for example, there have been three cargo mishaps in the last eight months. was that factored into your projections for cost? because it would seem that that alone would then begin to shoot cost up if those kind of accident which one could expect might happen over the course of operations over another to 2024. so it would be helpful to know what your basis for those

estimated costs are and respond to the challenges that mr. martin has laid out in his september 2014 report. >> we've been looking and working very aggressively to look at costs management and cost control. we have consolidated some contracts into a smaller number of contractor we're also using competition to attempt to drive down the cost. we're in the process right now we're in a black a bit of a record three cargo resupply services number two contract awarded. we've got extremely good competition from the activity and we believe competition will help us control and hold those costs and i think we're actively working. we are unaware of those cost issues and the challenges in front of us. 15 south strategies. we have effective consolidation plans and were removing cost from the program as we can and

we believe we can hold those costs down and we can provide some objective evidence of what we've done as seen in past contracts versus future contracting. >> mr. martin, since leopard for mr. gerstenmaier center 2014 report, would it still be your assessment that nasa's projections are overly optimistic? and in your analysis would you factor in three mishaps failures and a year in terms of looking at the costs speak with i'm not exactly sure whether they factored him an accident in, but if you think the cost projections are overly optimistic, continue to be. over the life of the program the iss has shown an 8% increase annually in cost over the life of the program. in fact, from 2011-2013 there was a 26% cost increase for the iss. so moving forward as we go out

nasa considers extending the life of the station to 2024 its projected in 2024 59% of station expenses will be for crew and cargo transportation. that's a big piece of the pie. >> just curious for all other panel come if you look at nasa's rationale for extending to 2024, they include research and technology discoveries that benefit society enabling human exploration to mars establishing commercial crew and cargo to low-earth orbit and to sustain commercial you've -- used the space. gestures at the with any of you believe what nasa's top priority should be. that's a big list in itself and its kind of hard to figure out what should be first versus fourth? dr. pawelczyk? >> thankthank you very much for the question, and it's a great one. and i think it's extremely

important for the subcommittee to take on. so the three biggies are really this idea discovery size. what are the big science questions that we want to have answered? we may not recognize the utility of those for a period of years. a piece of the research equipment that we put on my mission in 1998 was largely used in last year's nobel prize-winning towards. so that 16 years to recognize some return on that investment. but it's a very important return, nonetheless. there's also translation, this idea of what we need to do in order to go further? of course you mentioned the commercialization aspects. we have contended in the scientific community that it is not our job to sequence the priorities but it is the job of government. it is the job of the that the executive branch of the legislative branch and i believe it up to you to sort out which is which. i believe you've been clear at this point when i look at the authorization language for this year just had mars is very

important but is not an either or. it is in and. nasa will also maintain a fundamental research program. so i think you've already told us that mars is the answer. when you look at the research that remains to be done, the risks that fit in the red most of them, about half of them are associated with the expanded duration on mars of the mission of approximate three years duration to idle of another research platform that is going to provide us extended research capability to answer those three your questions. the iss is our choice for that and i think that's how it should be used. >> thank you. thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you. not like to recognize mr. brooks nation now i would like to recognize mr. brooks. >> turn one. mr. gerstenmaier, in light of the recent field, -- develop it, production operations of commercial provided vehicles

that service the international space station? >> as part of the action investigation with the spacex event that occurred we have part of our commercial crew program representative are part of that activity with spacex so they're actively involved in analyzing and understanding what occurred on the cargo vehicle with an eye towards any design changes can any process changes to any hardware changes that need to be made in the crew program so we're actively involved in transitioning that information from disparate directly into the crew program. >> thank you. and i appreciate that response. and effort on behalf of nasa in my experts, nasa is a tremendous amount of insight and expertise, and i would encourage nasa to show the leadership that you indicate they are showing and the management skills that you indicate that they are doing to assist with commercial crew so that they can be more successful

than they have been most recently. this question is with respect to mr. album and mr. gerstenmaier. for loss of the spacex able to receive a has been described as a big loss. part of that loss was replaced with spaces for the international space station. what are the implications to the international space station program for the loss of this suit? >> as i described earlier we were politic what of the suit that is on orbit and refurbish it on corporate instead of returning it to the ground. and we will develop a capability to transport suit on all of our cargo vehicle so we can bring other suits up to space station as needed to support activity. >> mr. elbon come anything to add? >> spacesuits are not part of ourpersistent contracts are not in the middle of working. we do help nasa with all the analysis necessary to to get which activities need to be done so we can make sure space

station can continue to operate with capabilities that exist. >> what was the cost of that lost space at? >> i did have a specific cost. i can take that for the record. we have 13 spaces available to us. they are from the shuttle program and this was one of those suits. we will not replace the suit. it will just continue to be lost and not a replacement with sufficiency sufficient suits remaining to continue to operate safely through the 2024 and beyond timeframe. >> the items that nasa said on these most recent launches from to visit that is absorbing the cost of the lost items that were being transported to the international space station? is that the commercial crew or is that nasa? >> for the nasa items the losses are borne by nasa. we estimate the nasa cargo lost brother at about 110 or so million dollars on the space exploit the researchers, they are responsible for their hardware.

they bear the loss from the research hardware that was lost and that's -- >> is there going to be any future effort by nasa in as much as we are hiring private contractors to require those private contractors to reimburse nasa for equipment materials lost because the private contractors were unsuccessful and launching their vehicles? ..