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President George W. Bush last Thursday threw his weight behind US space exploration as the Discovery shuttle was cleared to return to Earth following historic space repairs. Bush reiterated the US plan to retire the shuttle fleet by 2010 and replace it with a new vehicle capable of taking astronauts back to the Moon and eventually to Mars. "It is important for our fellow citizens to understand that we're going to take the NASA mission beyond the current mission," Bush told reporters alongside visiting Colombian President Alvaro Uribe at his Texas ranch. "The people I've talked to inside NASA are excited about the mission, the reinvigoration of the vision of exploration," Bush said. "And that's important for the American people to understand, that, one, exploration is important. Two, there'll be some good coming out of exploration. And three, that we've got a new vision embraced by NASA and its pioneers," he said. NASA on Thursday cleared Discovery to return to Earth after the space agency deemed that it was unnecessary to make a fourth spacewalk to repair parts of a thermal blanket that was torn near the cockpit window. On Wednesday, US astronaut Steve Robinson carried out a historic mission under the shuttle to make repairs to avoid a repeat of the 2003 Columbia tragedy. "Like a lot of Americans, I was amazed at the procedures that took place to repair the craft. It was pretty remarkable," Bush said. The US leader, who spoke before NASA decided against another space repair, said he was confident NASA officials would make the "right decision" about whether to make another spacewalk to fix the shuttle. "Ours is a country that values the safety of our citizens, particularly those we ask to take risks in space," Bush said. All rights reserved. © 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse. Related Links SpaceDaily Search SpaceDaily Subscribe To SpaceDaily Express 
Branson And Rutan Launch New Spaceship Manufacturing Company
Oshkosh WI (SPX) Jul 28, 2005Richard Branson (Founder, Virgin Group of Companies) and Burt Rutan (President, Scaled Composites) have signed a deal to form a new aerospace production company to build a fleet of commercial sub-orbital spaceships and launch aircraft. The new company will own the designs of the new SpaceShipTwo (SS2) and White Knight Two (WK2) launch systems that are now in development at Scaled Composites. |
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