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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: calgal who wrote (353196)	2/4/2003 12:53:14 AM
From: calgal	Respond to of 769670

Bush Says Space Exploration Will Go On URL:http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=544&ncid=703&e=3&u=/ap/20030203/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush Mon Feb 3, 4:50 PM ET Add White House - AP to My Yahoo! By RON FOURNIER, AP White House Correspondent WASHINGTON - President Bush (news - web sites) promised Monday to keep sending astronauts into space, where they can help solve mysteries of science "that elude us here on Earth." AP Photo Reuters Slideshow: President Bush Two days after the space shuttle Columbia disintegrated and fell from the skies, Bush paid brief tribute to the seven-member crew while promoting his $6 billion plan to help scientists combat bioterrorism. "Their 16-day mission held the promise of answering scientific problems that elude us here on Earth," the president said at the National Institutes of Health (news - web sites) in Bethesda, Md. "While we grieve the loss of these astronauts, the cause of which they died will continue." "America's journey into space will go on," Bush said. Those words were an echo of his nationally televised address Saturday, when Bush told the nation that Columbia was lost, without survivors. A CNN-USA Today-Gallup poll suggests that more than 80 percent of Americans want the shuttle program to continue. Bush views space travel as an extension of America's tradition of exploration, presidential spokesman Ari Fleischer (news - web sites) said. He would not say how soon NASA (news - web sites) should return to outer space nor whether a new generation of spaceships is needed, calling such questions premature. Bush travels Tuesday to the Johnson Space Center near Houston for a memorial service at which he plans to renew his commitment to space travel, pay tribute to the seven astronauts and help their families grieve. Hoping to give NASA workers a morale boost, the president summoned agency director Sean O'Keefe to the Oval Office. "You make us proud," the president told him. In the 45-minute meeting attended by Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites), O'Keefe pledged that NASA would examine all possible causes of the tragedy Earlier, the White House said Bush was not pushing for a presidential commission to study the tragedy because he is satisfied with the makeup of a panel appointed by O'Keefe, which largely comprises military officers. Congress plans to investigate the matter as well, but some critics have called for an investigation independent of NASA and Capitol Hill. Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer said the composition of the NASA panel was determined before the Columbia disaster, as a result of the explosion that destroyed the shuttle Challenger in 1986. "The independent panel has a strong track record," Fleischer said. In Maryland, the president linked Columbia's scientific mission to his request that Congress approve a $6 billion, 10-year program to produce more vaccines and treatments against agents such as smallpox, anthrax, botulinum toxin, ebola (news - web sites) and plague. "Two days ago, America was yet reminded again of the sacrifices made in the name of scientific discovery," the president said at NIH. A cornerstone of his "Project Bioshield" proposal would give federal health officials the power to stockpile whatever new treatment they deem necessary without first getting permission from Congress. "We already have the knowledge and ability to manufacture some of the vaccines and drugs we need, yet we have had little reason to do so up until now because the natural occurrence of these diseases in our country are so rare," Bush said. "But the world changed on Sept. 11, 2001, and we've got to respond to that change." The hope is that by essentially guaranteeing a lucrative market, pharmaceutical companies would get a long-sought financial incentive to spend the hundreds of millions of research dollars it takes to produce next-generation vaccines and drugs. In their Oval Office meeting, Bush and NASA chief O'Keefe agreed that astronauts would return to space as soon as possible, and both men expressed amazement that nobody was hit by falling debris Saturday. Bush's new government spending plan, released Monday, would propose increasing the space agency's funding by about 3 percent to nearly $15.5 billion next year. The shuttle program would increase from $3.2 billion this year to $3.9 billion next year.