Souvenir typescript of Aldrin’s testimony before the Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics House Committee on Science held on April 3, 2001, five typescript pages and ten additional pages of presentation slides, signed in person on the first page in blue ink. Entitled “Vision 2001: Future Space,” the testimony reads, in part: “Forty years ago this coming April 12th, Yuri Gagarin became the first human to see the Earth from space, an event that sparked President Kennedy’s commitment to put an American on the moon. Next month will mark the fortieth anniversary of that historic speech. Kennedy belonged to the so-called ‘Greatest Generation’—people who were willing to accept risk and sacrifice, who had a vision of something larger than themselves, who abided depression and war and left America a colossus astride the Earth. As their last great gesture they put humanity on the Moon. One thinks of the dying lieutenant’s last two words to Private Ryan: ‘Earn this.’ In our attempts to create a risk-free society, we’ve often failed to honor that debt. There is a failure of nerve in postmodern society. We seem to have reached a crossroads similar to that of sixteenth-century Europe on the eve of expansion into the New World—a crisis now more ominous than the cold war threat that compelled Kennedy’s commitment. On the one hand, there is a loss of vigor, a spreading irrationalism, and a collective hypochondria that seems to cripple our larger visions. Funding for basic research and development continues to decline, while the dream of space exploration succumbs to the dream of animal comfort. ‘Where there is no vision,’ says the proverb of Solomon, ‘the people perish.’ In fine condition. Autograph was obtained in person at the actual hearing. Pre-certified Zarelli Space Authentication.
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