Nelson presents his NASA vision during confirmation hearings.

During his Senate confirmation hearing Wednesday in Washington to be the next NASA Administrator- former Florida Senator Bill Nelson said President Biden's proposed increase in funding for the agency's earth science programs is vital--

"You can't mitigate climate change unless you can measure it and that's NASA's expertise," Nelson said. "Understanding our planet gives us the means to protect it."

Nelson told the senators- many of whom were his colleagues when he served in the senate- that the space program can ignite the interest of the next generation of Americans in science and technology.

"And the proof is in the pudding of what happened after the original Mercury, Gemini and Apollo (programs) and we saw a whole generation of mathematicians and engineers and technicians that came out of that."

President Biden nominated Nelson last month. Nelson grew up on the Space Coast and flew on the final shuttle mission before the Challenger disaster in 1986.

Image courtesy Getty


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