Sec. 2. FINDINGS

515 words·~2 min read·/statute-compilations/comps-12640/sec-2

A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.

## SEC. 2 FINDINGS The Congress finds the following: ####

(1)On July 16, 1969, the Apollo 11 spacecraft launched from Launch Complex 39A at the John F. Kennedy Space Center carrying Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins, who would become the first of mankind to complete a crewed lunar landing. ####

(2)The United States is the only country ever to have attempted and succeeded in landing humans on a celestial body off the Earth and safely returning them home, completing an unprecedented engineering, scientific and political achievement. ####

(3)The Apollo 11 mission, culminating in man’s first steps on the Moon on July 20, 1969, honored the fallen astronauts of the Apollo 1 crew, whose innovative work and bravery will be remembered forever. ####

(4)Apollo 11 accomplished the national goal set forth in 1961 by President John F. Kennedy, who stated at Rice University the following year, “We choose to go to the Moon. We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win”. ####

(5)At the height of the Cold War, the Apollo space program provided the United States and the free world with a powerful symbolic win, demonstrating the strength, ambition, and determination of the United States in technological and economic advancement, and securing our Nation’s leadership in space for generations to come. ####

(6)The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (referred to in this Act as “NASA”) Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, designed, assembled, and tested the most powerful launch vehicle in history, the Saturn V rocket, which was used for the Apollo missions in the 1960s and 1970s. ####

(7)The Saturn V weighed 6,200,000 pounds and generated 7,600,000 pounds of thrust, which NASA has equated to generating more power than 86 Hoover Dams. ####

(8)During the time period from 1969 through 1972, NASA completed eight Apollo missions and landed 12 men on the Moon. The 6 missions that landed on the Moon returned with a wealth of groundbreaking scientific data and over 800 pounds of lunar samples. ####

(9)An estimated 400,000 Americans contributed to the successful program that led to the lunar landing on July 20, 1969, including NASA scientists, engineers, astronauts, industry contractors and their engineering and manufacturing workforce, as well as the political leadership of Republicans and Democrats in Congress and the White House. ####

(10)The Apollo program, along with its predecessor Mercury and Gemini programs, inspired generations of American students to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), which has fueled innovation and economic growth throughout a range of industries over the last four decades. ####

(11)July 20, 2019, will mark the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the lunar surface.