Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2021

Floor Speech

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Mr. SOTO. Mr. Speaker, Soto Amendment, Soto number 77 to Division B, the Department of the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2021, specified that at least $40,000,000 from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Planetary Science budget to be applied to the general budget and applied to the Near Earth Object Surveillance Mission (NEOSM).

Space may be vast, but it's not empty. Earth is bombarded by tiny space rocks called meteors every day, most of which burn up in our atmosphere. Larger meteors, like the one that exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia in 2013, can damage buildings and cause minor injuries. And on rare occasions, asteroids and comets strike Earth and cause global devastation--the dinosaurs perished when this happened 66 million years ago.

NEOSM is a 50-centimeter-wide telescope. Its camera sees things in infrared wavelengths--a type of light not visible to human eyes. Infrared light reveals heat signatures, which is perfect for asteroids because they are very dark and hard to see against the blackness of space. In infrared light, they glow because they heat up in the Sun and re-radiate that heat back into space.

This is the impetus behind NEOSM, NASA's Near-Earth Object Surveillance Mission. NEOSM would launch as soon as 2025 and within 10 years meet Congress's goal of finding 90 percent of near-Earth objects 140 meters and wider. Finding and studying these objects will not only help us figure out if any are on course to hit Earth, but will also help lay the groundwork for survey and deflection missions if one is found.

I support ensuring funding for the Near Earth Surveillance Mission efforts to identify potentially hazard near Earth objects and thank my colleagues for their support of my amendment.

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