Congratulations to Jared Isaacman as NASA Administrator

Congratulations, Jared Isaacman for winning an overwhelming and bipartisan vote to become the new NASA Administrator. 

Thank you for focusing on landing Americans back on the Moon before China can land and make a territorial claim. We must maintain a U.S. national presence in orbit, return to the Moon--this time to stay and pioneer a permanent NASA-international partner-commercial base that will be the seed for massive science, industrialization, commercialization--and tourism. 

In parallel, we'll send Americans and our partners to Mars. A Mars base and eventually permanent colony will forever expand humanity's reach.

Here's a key point. Our national presence protects access for the free world and and for commercial space. We dare not let China control or deny access as they do in the South China Sea.

In your testimony to the Senate, you were absolutely correct: "This is not the time for delay but a time for action because if we fall behind — if we make a mistake — we may never catch up, and the consequences could shift the balance of power here on Earth."

As you'll know, Ye Peijian, the head of the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program declared: “The universe is like the ocean, the moon is like the Diaoyu Islands and Mars is like Huangyan Island.” Diaoyu is the CCP's name for Japan’s sovereign Senkaku Islands, and Huangyan is actually Scarborough Shoal which belongs to the Philippines. That is a poetic shot across the bow we must not ignore.

Time is short--shorter than China wishes us to believe. They have an unlimited budget, plundered technologies, and an imperative to beat us to the Moon. They could land on the Moon at early as 2017 or early 2018 if all goes well. Their propaganda timelines are spread out, yet their known progress indicates much a much sooner date. 

Our pioneering exploration, continuing since Alan Shepard in 1961, enables and preserves the democratization of space, and extends to the Moon, Mars and beyond. In peace. For all mankind. Just as we promised on the plaque we left on the Moon.

Godspeed, Administrator Isaacman. Americans support a bold space program of exploration, and your efforts will inspire our youth and everyone to a greater future.