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Congressman Bill Posey (R-Rockledge) issued the following statement in regard to NASA’s decision to resume orderly shutdown of the space shuttle program on April 30th:

“I remain committed to flying the shuttle beyond 2010 and I remain hopeful that the President will follow through on his pledge from last September to keep the shuttle going. Hopefully, once a new Administrator is appointed we can work together to find ways to extend the shuttle.

“From talking to NASA, it is my understanding that this decision does not preclude flying the shuttle beyond 2010. I firmly believe that additional shuttle flights are an important step as we seek to close the gap from both ends and that’s why I introduced the American Space Access Act. My bill keeps the shuttle flying until either the Constellation program is ready or a private company is certified to safely take humans to the space station.

“If we don’t act to address the space gap, this path will lead the government to laying-off thousands of highly skilled American workers and outsourcing their jobs to Russia. I have asked Congress to appropriate additional money for the shuttle program to ensure that we don't face a budget problem in 2010 as we seek to fly the shuttle beyond 2010.”