HM 1199

1	House Memorial
2	A memorial to the Congress of the United States, urging
3	Congress to facilitate any commercial, civil, military,
4	and academic endeavors necessary to maintain the nation's
5	only manned spaceflight operations workforce.
6
7	WHEREAS, the final mission of the Apollo space program was
8	launched on July 15, 1975, from the John F. Kennedy Space Center
9	in Cape Canaveral, Florida, and
10	WHEREAS, the first orbital flight of the Space Shuttle was
11	launched on April 12, 1981, from the Kennedy Space Center, and
12	WHEREAS, the nation's prowess in space suffered during this
13	interim between the Apollo and Space Shuttle programs, and
14	WHEREAS, the United States did not adequately facilitate
15	alternate commercial, civil, military, or academic endeavors,
16	including, but not limited to, job training and placement, in
17	order to preserve the skills of the Apollo program's workforce
18	for use on the Space Shuttle program, and
19	WHEREAS, the highly skilled Apollo program's workforce
20	became unemployed and, as a result, was forced to disperse to
21	obtain employment elsewhere, and
22	WHEREAS, the Space Shuttle program consequently had no
23	alternative except to establish, at great expense, a new and
24	untested workforce for Space Shuttle flight operations, and
25	WHEREAS, the final mission of the Space Shuttle program is
26	scheduled for launch on September 16, 2010, and
27	WHEREAS, the first manned flight of the Orion spacecraft,
28	the planned successor of the Space Shuttle, was not scheduled
29	for launch until 2015, and
30	WHEREAS, on February 1, 2010, the President of the United
31	States announced a proposal to cancel funding for the
32	Constellation program, including the Orion spacecraft, adding
33	uncertainty to the future of manned American spaceflight, and
34	WHEREAS, the United States should not repeat the mistakes
35	it made at the end of the Apollo program, and
36	WHEREAS, this state remains home to the nation's only
37	manned spaceflight workforce, NOW, THEREFORE,
38
39	Be It Resolved by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
40
41	That the Legislature requests the United States Congress to
42	facilitate any commercial, civil, military, and academic
43	endeavors, including, but not limited to, job training and
44	placement, that are necessary to maintain the nation's highly
45	skilled manned spaceflight operations workforce who reside in
46	this state.
47	BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be
48	dispatched to the President of the United States, to the
49	President of the United States Senate, to the Speaker of the
50	United States House of Representatives, and to each member of
51	the Florida delegation to the United States Congress.

CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.