{"id":4167,"date":"2016-10-23T19:19:52","date_gmt":"2016-10-23T23:19:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hunterword.com\/?p=4167"},"modified":"2017-03-14T15:41:46","modified_gmt":"2017-03-14T19:41:46","slug":"transcript-of-the-remarks-by-president-barack-obama-with-astronaut-scott-kelly-and-mark-kelly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hunterword.com\/index.php\/transcript-of-the-remarks-by-president-barack-obama-with-astronaut-scott-kelly-and-mark-kelly\/","title":{"rendered":"Transcript of the Remarks by President Barack Obama with Astronaut Scott Kelly and Mark Kelly"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sent:<\/strong> Friday, October 21, 2016 5:11 PM to the WORD Editor
\nFrom:<\/strong> THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary<\/p>\n

Oval Office, 3:25 P.M. ED<\/em>T<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Planet Mars and Scot Kelly<\/strong><\/p>\n

THE PRESIDENT:\u00a0<\/strong> Well, this is a treat for me, at the end of a long week, to be able to visit with a couple of friends, but also, I believe, American heroes.\u00a0 In particular, I want to say thank you, on behalf of the American people, to Scott Kelly.<\/p>\n

As some of you know, a while back, Scott completed what was the longest period of time that any U.S. astronaut has ever spent in space \u2013 almost a year.\u00a0 And what made this so important was not just to break a record, it gave us an opportunity to learn how Scott, as an astronaut, is impacted by lengthy stay like that.\u00a0 And we\u2019ve got somebody to compare him to \u2013 his twin brother Mark, also an astronaut.<\/p>\n

\"Official<\/a>

Official portrait of President-elect Barack Obama on Jan. 13, 2009.
(Photo by Pete Souza)<\/p><\/div>\n

So as a consequence, what we were able to learn is how does the body adapt, what kinds of physiological impacts \u2013 psychologically, from what I understand from Scott, he was pretty good.\u00a0 But all this allows us to start thinking about long-term manned space flight.<\/p>\n

And as I announced recently, our goal \u2013 our next goal \u2013 not our ultimate goal, but our next goal is to get to Mars. And obviously, we\u2019ve got a lot of work to do technologically to figure out how to get there, what kinds of space crafts allows us to do that most effectively.\u00a0 But if we\u2019re going to do a manned flight, then one of the keys is making sure that our astronauts who are going out into space for that long period of time are also then able to come back \u2013 what kinds of environments do we need to create for them, what are the biological sciences, and other elements that will allow for a successful mission.<\/p>\n

So we are extraordinarily grateful to Scott for the sacrifices that he\u2019s made.\u00a0 He did all kinds of science experimenting up there that is over my head and I won\u2019t even try to explain, but the data, the knowledge that we\u2019ve accumulated from his incredible adventure is something that is going to serve us in good stead as we continue to accelerate and advance our forays into space.<\/p>\n

As everybody knows, I\u2019m a big space fan, and Charles Bolden, another ex-astronaut, along with my Chief Science Advisor, John Holdren, have been working closely with me to maximize the investments that we make, to try to encourage Congress to work with us so that that final frontier is something that continues to inspire, continues to motivate the imaginations of young people, and creates enormous spillover effects \u2013 because when we learn about space, we\u2019re also learning about ourselves, and ultimately, we\u2019re learning about technologies that can make a difference in terms of our day-to-day lives.<\/p>\n

One last point I\u2019d make is, Scott was sharing with me what the planet looks like from up above and how much of a perspective it gives on the need for us to preserve this planet.\u00a0 And so I\u2019m going to have just a couple more remarks, but I thought this would maybe be a good time, Scott, for you just to share with everybody else what you just shared with me in terms of what it means when you\u2019re seeing day in and day out our planet Earth.<\/p>\n

MR. SCOTT KELLY:<\/strong>\u00a0 Well, thank you, Mr. President.\u00a0 Thank you, sir, for having us here today, and thanks for supporting NASA in your new initiative for us to start really thinking hard about going to Mars.\u00a0 I think that\u2019s our next very worthy goal in space.<\/p>\n

And what the President is referring to is, being in space for a whole year, you get this perspective of seeing the Earth through changing seasons and different lighting conditions.\u00a0 And when I was in space for shorter periods of time, I would often think, well, maybe the Earth is just looking like that because it\u2019s a weather pattern or it\u2019s not how it always appears throughout the year.<\/p>\n

But seeing places like China and India, and the pollution that exists there almost all the time is quite shocking.\u00a0 And there was one day last summer, the summer of 2015, when I was in space I saw the eastern side of China was perfectly clear.\u00a0 And I\u2019d never seen that before in all of my time in space, and I\u2019d spent well over a year in space, total, at that point.\u00a0 And I could see all these cities that are \u2013 there\u2019s like over 200 cities in that part of China, with over a million people.\u00a0 And it was at dusk, and I could just, for the very first time, I was able to see them, and it was quite shocking.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t really understand it until the next day I heard that the Chinese government had turned off a lot of the coal-producing power plants, stopped the cars from running in that part of the country for this national holiday, and the sky had completely cleared.<\/p>\n

So it\u2019s interesting to see just how much of a negative impact we have on the environment, but also how quickly we can have a positive impact on it if we decide to do something \u2013 not to mention the atmosphere is very, very thin and scary-looking when you see it from space.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

STEM<\/strong><\/p>\n

THE PRESIDENT:<\/strong>\u00a0 That\u2019s a good reminder that we need to do everything we can to preserve this place we call home.<\/p>\n

Because of people like Scott and Mark, we are continuing to see young people inspired to get into science, math, engineering, technology \u2013 what we call STEM.\u00a0 As many of you know, we\u2019ve been really trying to emphasis STEM education, including hosting a White House Science Fair, so that the incredible achievements of our best young minds are celebrated.<\/p>\n

At the last one, a nine-year-old budding scientist said to me, you need a kid science advisory group so that you\u2019re getting our perspective about what\u2019s interesting to us and how you should be thinking about teaching science and getting kids excited about science.\u00a0 And then I thought, that\u2019s why you\u2019re smarter than me. (Laughter.)<\/p>\n

So we, in fact, have formed a science advisory group, which is meeting as we speak.\u00a0 After we finish here, we\u2019re going to go and talk to them, because I suspect that there are going to be some of those young people in the Roosevelt Room who are going to be the ones to figure out how we not just get to Mars, but colonize Mars and go beyond.\u00a0 They\u2019re the ones who are going to figuring out these technologies.\u00a0 But they will be building off the incredible work of people like Scott Kelly and Mark Kelly.<\/p>\n

And my last point, I want to say thank you to Mark Kelly. With his wife, Gabby Giffords, they have been doing incredible work around making sure that, in addition to taking care of the planet and understanding our environment, that we\u2019re also thinking smartly about gun safety and the preventable deaths that bring so much tragedy and hardship to so many people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n

My understanding is Gabby, right now, is on a 42-day bus trip.<\/p>\n

MR. MARK KELLY<\/strong>:\u00a0 \u2013 42 days, 42 cities.<\/p>\n

THE PRESIDENT:<\/strong>\u00a0 \u2013 42 days and 42 cities \u2013<\/p>\n

MR. MARK KELLY:<\/strong>\u00a0 Bus trip.<\/p>\n

THE PRESIDENT:<\/strong>\u00a0 \u2013 Bus trip, and just talking about the importance of us getting together in a bipartisan way to do something about gun safety.<\/p>\n

And so, in addition to doing cool stuff in space, they\u2019re also helping us think smartly about how to make our country better on a day-to-day basis.\u00a0 So we\u2019re so glad she\u2019s doing well. We want to thank both of them.<\/p>\n

At some other time, if you haven\u2019t already heard, you should get some stories from Scott about what it\u2019s like after you\u2019ve been in space for almost a year, and then you come down and you\u2019re walking around.\u00a0 My understanding is that his head got a little larger \u2013 (laughter) \u2013 measurably so.\u00a0 And we don\u2019t just mean ego.\u00a0 (Laughter.)\u00a0 But apparently it\u2019s back to normal size. I wanted to see him right away, but folks thought it might be a little scary.\u00a0 (Laughter.)<\/p>\n

All right.\u00a0 Thank you, guys.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Q\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0 Did you meet with Bill Murray?<\/p>\n

THE PRESIDENT:<\/strong>\u00a0 Absolutely.\u00a0 He was wearing a Cubs jacket which, for a White Sox fan, is a little troubling.\u00a0 (Laughter.)<\/p>\n

Thank you, guys.\u00a0 Thank you, everybody.<\/p>\n

END<\/strong><\/p>\n

Edited for publication by Gregg Morris October 23, 2016. Morris can be reached at gmorris@hunter.cuny.edu
\n<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sent: Friday, October 21, 2016 5:11 PM to the WORD Editor From: THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary Oval Office, 3:25 P.M. EDT   Planet Mars and Scot Kelly THE PRESIDENT:\u00a0 Well, this is a treat for me,…<\/p>\n

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