NASA Mars Perseverance Excerpt: Remarks by President Biden at the 2021 Virtual Munich Security Conference
“I know we can do this. We’ve done it before. Just yesterday — after a seven-month, 300-million mile journey — NASA successfully landed the Perseverance Rover on Mars. It’s on a mission of exploration, with elements contributed by our European partners to seek evidence of the possibility of life beyond our planet and the mysteries of the universe.
Over the next few years — “Percy” is (inaudible) call — but Perseverance will range and collect samples from the Red Planet and pile them up so another mission and rover, envisioned as a joint effort between NASA and the European Space Agency, will retrieve this trove of scientific wonders and bring it home to all of us.
That’s what we can do together. If our unbound capacity to carry us to Mars and back don’t tell us anything else, they tell us we can meet any challenge we can face on Earth. We have everything we need. And I want you to know the United States will do — we’ll do our part. We’ll stand with you. We’ll fight for our shared values. We’ll meet the challenges of this new moment in history.
America is back. So let’s get together and demonstrate to our great, great grandchildren, when they read about us, that democracy — democracy — democracy functions and works, and together, there is nothing we can’t do. So let’s get working.”
On Thursday, I joined the world and watched in awe as the Perseverance Rover touched down on the surface of Mars. It was a remarkable feat — one made possible by the hard work and ingenuity of the team at @NASA.
I called to congratulate them on their historic landing. pic.twitter.com/0Qjs2MDk4J
— President Biden (@POTUS) February 20, 2021
Always nice to be praised, of course. But the thought strikes that both Joe Biden and Kamala Harris must be grateful to have some government activity to point to which clearly is an accomplishment and escapes partisan bickering. So, my fingers are crossed, but I wouldn’t be comfortable predicting that this Presidential recognition necessarily leads to any major boost in NASA’s fortunes.
Sigh!
You are right of course, but I take hope in that he praised NASA and not himself as Trump did.