Over the past few days, we've taken significant steps to implement America's ambitious new space exploration plan, with progress made on our deep space exploration program, the rollout of another commercial rocket, and discoveries on Mars that will guide our way on future missions to the Red Planet with U.S. astronauts.

Today, we announced contract awards to improve the affordability, reliability, and performance of an advanced booster for the Space Launch System (SLS) -- the rocket that will launch humans on missions of deep space exploration. The companies selected will develop engineering demonstrations and risk reduction concepts that will inform our work on this crucial system that will help us reach those destinations farther in our solar system.

The initial 77-ton (70-metric-ton) SLS configuration will use two 5-segment solid rocket boosters similar to those that helped power the space shuttle to orbit. The evolved 143-ton (130-metric-ton) SLS vehicle will require an advanced booster with more thrust than any existing U.S. liquid- or solid-fueled boosters. These new initiatives will demonstrate and examine advanced booster concepts and hardware demonstrations during a 30-month period.

The Orion multi-purpose crew vehicle in which astronauts will travel to these deep space destinations recently completed a set of tests to simulate various water landing scenarios to account for different velocities, parachute deployments, entry angles, wave heights, and wind conditions the spacecraft may encounter when landing in the Pacific Ocean. The next round of water impact testing is scheduled to begin in late 2013 using a full-sized model that was built to validate the flight vehicle's production processes and tools. In 2014, Orion will make its first test flight to simulate re-entry from a lunar mission. As the next class of astronauts is selected, NASA continues to ensure they will be able to travel to low Earth orbit as well as other destinations farther into our solar system.

However, in order to focus on these deep space missions, we must have a successful partnership with private industry to take our astronauts and their cargo to the International Space Station. This is critically important to insource jobs, stimulate the economy, and bring crew and cargo launches back to U.S. soil, ensuring that American companies are transporting our astronauts and their supplies.

Today's rollout of Orbital Sciences' Antares test vehicle to the launch pad at the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia marks yet another milestone in the development of the commercial cargo resupply program. Next Sunday in Florida, SpaceX plans to launch the first commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station, marking the return of cargo launches to America's shores.

We look forward to Orbital soon joining SpaceX in regular service missions to the space station and helping our international crews continue the breakthroughs in human health and technology that will help us travel farther.

In addition to this extraordinary progress, all eyes continue to be on Mars -- and the Curiosity rover does not disappoint. Last week, we announced an incredible new finding -- one of many to come that we know will transform our understanding of the Red Planet and help pave the way for human landings there.

Curiosity has found evidence a stream once ran vigorously across the area on Mars where the rover is driving. Such a running stream could have provided an environment hospitable to life. There is earlier evidence for the presence of water on Mars, but this evidence -- images of rocks containing ancient streambed gravels -- is the first of its kind. During the two-year prime mission of the rover, researchers will use Curiosity's 10 instruments to investigate whether other areas in Gale Crater have ever offered environmental conditions favorable for microbial life. All of this furthers scientific discovery, but also paves the way for human exploration in the not-too-distant future.

It's been a great few days, but we've only just begun to carry out the ambitious exploration plan to which President Obama and Congress have agreed, positioning America to continue to lead the world in space and changing the way we see our home planet.

Landing the Curiosity rover on Mars was a big feat for NASA, but we could not have done it without the work of small businesses.

On Wednesday, Sept. 19, I'm joining Administrator Karen Mills of the Small Business Administration for a Google+ Hangout with ATA Engineering, one of the small businesses that made the Mars Science Laboratory mission landing a success.

Google+ members and reporters are welcome to join the discussion from 10:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. EDT Wednesday. Administrator Mills and I will talk with representatives of ATA about their work to design and analyze the design of the entry, descent and landing process – known as "Seven Minutes of Terror" – as well as other systems operating the Curiosity rover.

The Google+ Hangout will go live here: Http://plus.google.com/+NASA

Reporters wishing to join the Hangout should e-mail lauren.b.worley@nasa.gov for more information. You can join in the conversation on Wednesday by submitting your questions during the Google+ Hangout and on Twitter using the hashtag #AskNASA.

Today marks the 50th anniversary of President Kennedy's "Address at Rice University on the Nation's Space Effort," when the young president shifted our efforts in space from low to high gear. In proclaiming, "We choose to go to the moon," Kennedy propelled our space program to the forefront of American culture and consciousness, galvanizing an historic effort on which we continue to build today.

Accomplishing Kennedy's goals, both tangible and intangible, we have taken on his vision to create new challenges and now reach toward new capabilities and destinations. Neil Armstrong first left humanity's footprint on the moon, and more importantly helped raise the "banner of freedom and peace," fulfilling Kennedy's vow to "not see [space] governed by a hostile flag of conquest."

And we now stand on Armstrong's shoulders to create a sustainable vision for the future exploration of space. Much like those aboard the Apollo 7, 8, 9, and 10 missions cleared the path for Apollo 11 and Armstrong to land on the moon, our Curiosity rover on Mars is clearing the path for humans – Americans – to land on Mars. Our space program has developed new technologies that made human expansion into the solar system a reality. It created a global enterprise, now spinning off into the private sector, which continues to advance our nation and our world.

We realize now as we did then that we are not just on a mission to discover the universe; we are on a mission to discover ourselves. As astronaut Bill Anders, one of the first three humans to see the far side of the moon, put it, "We came all this way to explore the moon, and the most important thing is that we discovered the Earth." We cannot forget that the purpose of space exploration is to make life on Earth better, even as we "increase our knowledge and unfold our ignorance," as Kennedy said, and as we continuously raise the bar of human achievement.

As Kennedy hoped for greater achievements in science and education, in culture, and for peace, he could not have foreseen the degree to which we have unfolded our ignorance. He envisioned "new techniques of learning and mapping and observation, by new tools and computers for industry, medicine, the home as well as the school."

There are literally thousands of examples of exploration technology being adapted for life on Earth, and a few areas where we have surpassed Kennedy's greatest dreams: artificial hearts; retrofit systems that convert gas-powered vehicles into gas-electric hybrids, used in such trucks as mail delivery trucks for the U.S. Postal Service; health and fitness monitoring technology capable of measuring and recording vital signs of soldiers, first responders, professional athletes, and consumers seeking to get in shape; and parachutes capable of rescuing entire planes.

Our fleet of Earth observation satellites track hurricanes and wildfires and are able to analyze landslide motion and keep watch on agricultural fields. They provide continuity of data over the long term to help us see how our planet continues to change as a unified system. Our research on the International Space Station has helped us understand processes such as bone and muscle loss especially applicable to our senior citizens.

All this innovation has saved countless lives and billions of dollars, all the while creating thousands of jobs.

And we continue to reach higher. We have opened a new door to commercial space, for instance, helping facilitate a new space transportation industry to low Earth orbit.

Today, to "organize and measure the best of our energies and skills," as Kennedy charged us, we're doing things like landing that small SUV-size rover on Mars, now transmitting high definition images and information, which will lead to a better understanding of the Martian environment and the different ways Mars and Earth evolved. By 2018 we will launch our new James Webb Space Telescope, which will serve as our eye in the sky, peering deeper into the universe than ever before.

We're building our Space Launch System, the most powerful rocket in history, and Orion, the new multi-purpose vehicle crew capsule, which will lead to the first-ever crewed missions beyond the low Earth orbit and the Moon into deep space. President Obama charged us with increasingly difficult challenges, beginning with sending astronauts to an asteroid by 2025 and Mars by the mid-2030s. The journey there will be full of discoveries and new technological breakthroughs.

So while President Kennedy christened our sails on the new sea of space exploration, our work is far from done. Thanks to President Obama, this generation's young president, we are witnessing a christening of a rejuvenated space program, where we will traverse previously untouched terrain, learning from our past and building on it to forge a bright future.

To watch President Kennedy's historic speech, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?media_id=151776051

NASA is back on Mars – and getting ready for the next mission to the Red Planet! After an astounding 352 million mile journey and a harrowing landing that demonstrated cutting-edge technology, Curiosity, the largest rover ever sent to another planet, is in place and ready to work. This robotic laboratory will seek answers to one of humanity’s oldest questions as it investigates whether conditions have favored development of microbial life on the Red Planet. The mission is a critical planetary science mission -- and a precursor to sending humans to the Red Planet in the 2030’s, a goal set forth by President Obama.

It’s another great leadership moment for our nation and a sign of the continued strength of NASA’s many programs in science, aeronautics and human spaceflight. It’s also important to remember that the $2.5 billion investment made in this project was not spent on Mars, but right here on Earth, supporting more than 7,000 jobs in at least 31  states.

With the retirement of the Shuttle program after its final flight in July 2011, some have suggested that NASA’s leadership in the exploration of space, including our extraordinary successes on Mars, was coming to an end. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Curiosity mission is only the latest in a long list of extraordinary NASA missions that established the United States as the undisputed world leader, and it will help guarantee that remains the case for many years to come.

When our Orion deep space crew vehicle takes its first test flight in 2014, it will travel farther into space than any spacecraft designed for humans has flown in the 40 years since our astronauts returned from the moon.

In 2017, NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS), a heavy-lift rocket that will provide an entirely new capability for human exploration beyond low Earth orbit, will launch Orion.

We also reached a critically important milestone in May when SpaceX became the first private company to send a spacecraft -- the Dragon cargo capsule -- to the International Space Station and return it with cargo intact. This successful mission ushered in a new era in spaceflight -- and signaled a new way of doing business for NASA. And just a few days ago, we announced the next step in the Obama Administration’s aggressive plan to once again launch our astronauts from U.S. soil on spacecraft built by American companies.

As part of our commitment to maintain American leadership in the exploration of Mars beyond the Curiosity mission, NASA will launch the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) orbiter next year. Earlier this year, I directed NASA’s science mission director, along with the head of human exploration, Chief Technologist, and Chief Scientist to develop a more integrated strategy to ensure that the next steps for Mars exploration will support the nation’s planetary science objectives as well as our human exploration goals. They are looking at many options, including another robotic mission to land on Mars in this decade.

I am so proud of the NASA team that has made tonight’s challenging milestone possible. However, tomorrow we begin to plan for the next great challenge -- and start compiling incredible scientific data from Curiosity. For the past 50 years, NASA has specialized in doing the hard things. Thanks to the ingenuity of our teams across America and the world, we are poised for even greater success.

For more information about Curiosity and NASA's missions to Mars, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/mars

The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) team in the MSL Mission Support Area reacts after learning the the Curiosity rover has landed safely on Mars and images start coming in at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory Sunday, Aug. 5, 2012, in Pasadena, Calif. The MSL Rover named Curiosity was designed to assess whether Mars ever had an environment able to support small life forms called microbes. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

Today, I am with Kennedy Space Center Director, Bob Cabana and the program manager for NASA's Commercial Crew Program, Ed Mango, to announce the selection of three companies for the next phase of our efforts to develop private sector capabilities that will keep us on track to end the outsourcing of America's human spaceflight program.

They are: The Boeing Company, Space Exploration Technologies and Sierra Nevada Corporation.

We have selected these companies to develop crew transportation capabilities as fully integrated systems.

Each of these companies has proven track records in the aerospace industry.

By keeping three companies in the mix, we not only ensure competition, which is good for the taxpayers, we also guarantee that we never find ourselves in the situation we're in today -- dependent on a sole provider to get our crew to space.

For the next 21 months, these partners will perform tests and complete designs.

Through this initiative NASA will help the private sector design and develop the human spaceflight capability that could ultimately lead to the availability of human spaceflight services for both government and commercial customers.

And we'll also help support the creation of high-paying technology jobs in Florida and across the country.

The ultimate goal of our Commercial Crew space program -- a high priority of the Obama Administration -- is to bring human spaceflight launches back here to American soil and end the outsourcing of these important jobs.

Our U.S. industry partners will help us achieve safe, reliable and cost-effective access to and from the International Space Station and low Earth orbit.

This strategy allows us to concentrate on building America's next generation space exploration system, the Orion spacecraft, and the Space Launch System -- the vehicle and rocket that will take American astronauts farther into space than any spacecraft developed for human spaceflight has flown in the 40 years since our astronauts returned from the moon.

We made the announcement at Kennedy Space Center for two reasons. First, as Kennedy celebrates 50 years as America's gateway to space, we are proud that it is now the launch pad for the next big leap in the nation's space program -- our Commercial Crew Program, which is headquartered here. And second, just two years ago, at Kennedy Space Center, President Obama set a goal of sending humans farther into space than we have ever been -- to an asteroid by 2025 and to Mars in the 2030s.

NASA's exploration strategy is producing tangible results and the teams in Florida and across the nation are making steady progress.

Our commercial crew and cargo efforts are based on a simple but powerful principle: By investing in American companies -- and American ingenuity -- we are spurring free-market competition to give taxpayers more bang for the buck, while enabling NASA to do what it does best -- reach for the heavens.

For more about NASA's commercial partnerships, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/commercial

At NASA we're constantly reaching for new heights and bringing about a future where we can do more than we can do today. We're making the impossible possible. We're helping to create jobs while we do it. We've done it many times in the past, and now we're striving to do it again by building the largest rocket the world has ever seen to carry humans farther into to space than ever before. Today we take one more step on that path.

In order to reach the deep space destinations like an asteroid and Mars, our Space Launch System, or SLS, will require boosters similar to, but more powerful than those we designed for the space shuttle. Today, NASA selected six proposals to improve the affordability, reliability, and performance of an advanced booster for the SLS. The companies selected will develop engineering demonstrations and risk reduction concepts for the heavy-lift rocket -- a launch vehicle that will provide an entirely new capability for human exploration beyond low Earth orbit.

The SLS is crucial to our future exploration plans, and we look forward to the concepts and ideas that these companies will give us. The funding for this work is contingent, however, on Congress providing the resources that President Obama has requested in his Fiscal Year 2013 budget request.

A new era of space exploration has already begun. Commercial partners are making more and more milestones, such as SpaceX's historic launch, berthing, and return of the Dragon capsule in May. With commercial space well on its way to taking over the transport to low Earth orbit that NASA pioneered, it's time again for NASA to innovate by doing the next big thing no one can right now.

NASA is lining up the work to continue aggressively on a new transportation system to get American astronauts on missions to an asteroid and Mars. The Orion crew vehicle that will ride atop the SLS is already well into development. In 2014 our prime contractor, Lockheed Martin, will launch it on an unmanned flight that will simulate a lunar mission re-entry. This will help us buy down risks on the ultimate human-certified vehicle. We can't stop now on the SLS, and we look forward to the support we need to carry out the work that a bi-partisan majority in Congress has supported to take America's space program to new destinations and keep us reaching higher.

To read more about SLS, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/sls

NASA recently released a new Web-based tool that provides the public, citizen inventors, and American businesses improved access to the agency's unique intellectual property assets that are available for technology transfer. I'm proud to say NASA is the first federal agency to have its complete intellectual portfolio available in one online location.

Through our technology transfer program, NASA has a legacy of providing public benefit from the research and development we do to explore space and improve aeronautics. Our technology transfer efforts continue to be forward leaning and innovative. We're committed to this robust program, and it's good for the nation.

NASA designs technologies to solve difficult problems. Many of the same challenges we face here on Earth can directly benefit from space technology through the creation of commercial products and services.

Devices designed to operate in harsh, remote, high stress environments with limited servicing, for instance, can be used in some of the extreme locations found on Earth. Strong, lightweight materials that can withstand the extraordinary temperatures of space have applications on aircraft and in industrial manufacturing systems found throughout America. The lifesaving techniques, protocols, and tools NASA uses when the nearest doctor is more than 200 miles away can be applied to healthcare and remote telemedicine here on Earth. Recycling systems for closed environments, as well as energy generation and storage methods developed for use aboard the International Space Station provide benefits and innovative solutions to today's need for dependable, renewable resources for America.

As NASA develops technologies that provide new knowledge and capabilities that will enable our current and future missions, we remain committed to providing a return on investment to the American taxpayer through our technology transfer efforts.

The use of NASA technologies by industry spurs job growth and U.S. economic competitiveness while improving our everyday lives. I encourage you to visit our new Technology Transfer Portal, where you can find success stories from our past and new partnering opportunities available today.

Visit NASA's Technology Transfer Portal at:

http://technology.nasa.gov