HOME      DISTRICT      CONTACT ME       CONSTITUENT SERVICES       NEWS      BIOGRAPHY       RESOURCES      CHILDREN'S ISSUES

  
 

 

 

 

 

 

    
DeLay: One Giant Leap Indeed
Honors Apollo 11 & 35 Years of Human Space Exploration

WASHINGTON – House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) inserted the following remarks into the Congressional Record today to mark the 35th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing and to honor the courage and brilliance of the men and women at NASA.

“On July 20, 1969, at 10:56 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, the United States achieved the greatest single feat of ingenuity in human history when Neil Armstrong stepped onto the surface of the moon. In the three and a half decades that have passed since that awesome night, an entire generation of humanity has been born never knowing a time before the Apollo 11 mission.

“And while this is the necessary and proper way of human progress, those of us who remember staying up that night, glued to the living room television, our muscles tired from tension and fear and anticipation – we know what our children have missed.

“In the last 35 years, space travel has been made – thanks to the brilliance and courage of NASA – into something seemingly almost routine. But those of us who were there 35 years ago know it is not, and never was, routine.

“Space exploration, then and now, represents the apex of humanity’s quest for knowledge and of every obstacle standing between us and the unknown. For thousands of years, mankind dreamed of what it would be like to fly like birds, and then in less than 70 years, the people of Earth got from Kitty Hawk to the moon.

“‘One giant leap’ indeed.

“35 years ago, the world stopped to watch and listen and learn as two men walked into history. Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins command as much respect today as they did when they left their footprints on the lunar surface, and it is for us who remember to not let those who don’t ever forget.

“A generation of Americans have been inspired by what they saw 35 years ago. What will our children remember of us 35 years from now? Will we have sought out great challenges, sought to take the next ‘giant leap for mankind’? Will we have dared mighty deeds to leave our own footprints on history?

“There can be only one truly American answer to that question, and it was answered for all times by the men of Apollo 11.”