HM 253

1	House Memorial
2	A memorial to the Congress of the United States, urging
3	Congress to direct that one of the retiring space shuttle
4	orbiters be preserved and placed on permanent display at
5	the Kennedy Space Center.
6
7	WHEREAS, the space shuttle program was a technical
8	milestone, producing the first reusable orbital spacecraft, and
9	has been the mainstay of the nation's manned space flight
10	program, and
11	WHEREAS, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
12	launched the first space shuttle mission in 1981 from the
13	Kennedy Space Center, the location from which all subsequent
14	missions have been launched, and
15	WHEREAS, since 1981, there have been over 125 shuttle
16	missions, with the last planned shuttle flight scheduled for
17	launch from the Kennedy Space Center in September 2010, and
18	WHEREAS, in fiscal year 2008, the space shuttle program was
19	responsible for approximately 15 percent of the Kennedy Space
20	Center's budget allocation, and more than 40,000 jobs in this
21	state are estimated to be attributable to the space center's
22	operations, an indication that, in addition to its historical
23	importance, the shuttle program has been of significant economic
24	importance to Floridians, and
25	WHEREAS, after the tragic losses of Challenger in 1986 and
26	Columbia in 2003, three orbiters remain in the shuttle fleet:
27	Atlantis, Discovery, and Endeavor, NOW, THEREFORE,
28
29	Be It Resolved by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
30
31	That the Legislature requests the United States Congress to
32	direct that one of the retiring space shuttle orbiters be
33	preserved and placed on permanent display at the Kennedy Space
34	Center.
35	BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be
36	dispatched to the President of the United States, to the
37	President of the United States Senate, to the Speaker of the
38	United States House of Representatives, and to each member of
39	the Florida delegation to the United States Congress.

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