Today, Ranking Member Frank Lucas of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology congratulated the thousands of professionals at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for successfully launching the Perseverance Mars Rover and expressed confidence in NASA’s future of crewed exploration on the Moon and Mars.
NASA’s Perseverance rover will complete a series of tasks that can be used to evaluate the demands of living on Mars – a critical milestone on the path to future crewed missions. The Perseverance mission marks a number of firsts: the first rover to prioritize finding evidence of ancient life and the first demonstration of powered flight on another planet, with the Ingenuity helicopter. Perseverance will also gather weather and environmental data and collect soil samples that can be returned for future analysis on Earth.
Watch Lucas’ full address:
Ranking Member Lucas on NASA's Perseverance Launch
Read his full address here:
 
“I want to congratulate NASA on today’s launch of Perseverance – the fifth rover mission to Mars.
Not only will we verify the weather and environmental conditions, things that we’ll need to know to send humans to mars, this mission is also focused on the potential for finding ancient life or a record of past ancient life. That’s just the most amazing thing.
To my friends at NASA, the thousands of people who worked in a dedicated fashion to make this and all the missions that brought us to this point possible – Thank you. After Perseverance, steps will continue back to the Moon, and on to Mars. Great work ladies and gentlemen.”