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R E S O L U T I O N
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WHEREAS, On July 20, 2019, people in Texas, across the |
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nation, and around the world will celebrate the 50th anniversary of |
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the historic Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969, and this occasion |
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provides a fitting opportunity to pay tribute to the creation of |
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NASA and to all 17 missions of the Apollo program; and |
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WHEREAS, Because our nation had fallen behind Europe in |
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aircraft technology by the start of World War I in 1914, Congress |
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created the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics in March |
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1915, and for the next four decades, NACA conducted aeronautical |
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research that directly influenced the successful growth of the |
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American aerospace industry; by the 1950s, NACA engineers were |
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already thinking about the technology necessary to send men into |
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space, including a worldwide tracking network, dual controls to |
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give pilots greater autonomy over their craft, and heat shields for |
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reentry into the atmosphere; and |
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WHEREAS, Despite these efforts, the Soviet Union was first |
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into space, launching the Sputnik satellite in 1957; in response, |
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our nation built on the earlier work of NACA and created the |
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National Aeronautics and Space Administration, which opened for |
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business on October 1, 1958; NASA scrambled to quickly get the |
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U.S. space program up to speed, and the urgency of the situation was |
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made clear on April 12, 1961, when a Soviet astronaut became both |
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the first man in space and the first man to orbit the Earth; less |
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than a month later, Alan Shepard became the first American in space |
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during a short suborbital flight on May 5, 1961; and |
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WHEREAS, With the U.S. under tremendous pressure to catch and |
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overtake the Soviet Union in the "space race," President John |
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F. Kennedy sought a boldly ambitious project; he addressed a |
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special joint session of Congress on May 25, 1961, declaring that |
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"this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before |
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this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him |
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safely to Earth"; and |
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WHEREAS, President Kennedy expanded on this declaration in a |
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famous speech at Rice University in Houston on September 12, 1962, |
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when he stated, "this State of Texas, this country of the United |
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States was not built by those who waited and rested and wished to |
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look behind them. This country was conquered by those who moved |
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forward--and so will space. . . . But why, some say, the moon? Why |
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choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest |
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mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play |
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Texas? We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in |
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this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but |
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because they are hard"; and |
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WHEREAS, Building on the success of NASA's first two manned |
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spaceflight programs, Mercury and Gemini, the scientists, |
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engineers, and technicians of the Apollo program began to develop |
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and build the necessary technology to carry out the lunar mission |
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and to train the brave astronauts who would make the journey; much |
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of the training was based at what is now the Johnson Space Center in |
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Houston, which was also the home of the NASA mission control center; |
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and |
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WHEREAS, The dangers inherent in spaceflight were lost on no |
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one, and they became all the more apparent when the first scheduled |
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manned mission, Apollo 1, ended in tragedy; astronauts Virgil "Gus" |
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Grissom, Edward White, and Roger Chaffee were killed in a fire |
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during a training simulation on the launch pad on January 27, 1967; |
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the disaster caused NASA to reevaluate all aspects of the |
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spacecraft and the program, but the Apollo administrators, |
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technicians, and astronauts quickly rallied; between October 1968 |
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and May 1969, four manned missions were successfully completed to |
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conduct various trial runs in space, and the flight of Apollo 8 |
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during Christmas 1968 became the first manned flight to orbit the |
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moon and return to Earth; and |
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WHEREAS, On July 16, 1969, the astronauts Neil Armstrong, |
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Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins of Apollo 11 lifted off from the |
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Kennedy Space Center aboard a Saturn V rocket; after traveling |
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240,000 miles through space, the conjoined Apollo command module |
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and the lunar lander, dubbed "the Eagle," went into orbit around the |
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moon on July 19; the following day, Armstrong and Aldrin left |
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Collins behind in the command module, entered the lander, and |
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descended toward the lunar surface; with only 30 seconds of fuel |
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remaining, Armstrong set the spacecraft down on the Sea of |
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Tranquility and coolly radioed the astronauts' status to mission |
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control: "Houston, Tranquility Base here, the Eagle has landed"; |
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and |
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WHEREAS, Six and a half hours later, as a television camera |
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beamed his image back to hundreds of millions of viewers on Earth, |
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Neil Armstrong became the first human being to set foot on the moon, |
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making his famous pronouncement, "That's one small step for man, |
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one giant leap for mankind"; Aldrin followed a few minutes later, |
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and together the two astronauts spent two and a half hours on the |
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lunar surface, taking photographs, collecting samples, and |
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planting an American flag; the following day, they returned to |
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their colleague in the command module, and on July 24, the three men |
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returned safely to Earth; and |
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WHEREAS, Following the triumph of the first lunar landing, |
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Americans returned to the moon six more times; one of the missions, |
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Apollo 13, became known as a "successful failure" when, after an |
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explosion on board crippled the command module, the ingenious |
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improvisation of engineers on the ground and the bravery and |
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determination of the crew allowed the astronauts to return safely |
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to Earth; in all, the United States landed 12 men on the moon |
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between the flights of Apollo 11 in July 1969 and Apollo 17 in |
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December 1972; nearly 60 years after President Kennedy's address to |
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Congress, the Russians have yet to land a single cosmonaut on the |
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moon; and |
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WHEREAS, Between October 2018 and December 2022, NASA is |
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marking the 50th anniversaries of the Apollo flights, and the |
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official logo of these milestone anniversaries depicts the arc of |
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Earth's horizon striking through the word Apollo against a star |
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field that recalls the collective effort of the 400,000 people who |
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worked on the program; three central stars symbolize the sacrifice |
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of the Apollo 1 astronauts, Grissom, White, and Chaffee; behind the |
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star field is a blue nebula that stands for NASA's bold plans for |
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the next half century of American space exploration, including a |
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return to the moon and manned missions to Mars; and |
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WHEREAS, The 17 missions of the Apollo program represent one |
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of the greatest scientific and engineering feats in history, and |
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they remain a testament to human imagination and ingenuity and to |
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the pioneering spirit of a great nation; now, therefore, be it |
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RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the 86th Texas |
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Legislature hereby commemorate the 17 missions of the Apollo |
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program on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the first moon |
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landing in July 2019. |