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RESOLUTION NO. 2008-054 A RESOLUTION BY THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS OF INDIAN RIVER COUNTY, FLORIDA, TO THE FLORIDA CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION REGARDING THE IMPORTANCE OF MAINTAINING SPACEFLIGHT EXPERTISE AT THE KENNEDY SPACE CENTER AND ENSURING THAT FUTURE CREW AND CARGO MISSIONS TO THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION USE DOMESTIC CAPABILITIES. WHEREAS, the United States Space Program is recognized as the world's leading space program and the Kennedy Space Center has no equal in the world; and WHEREAS, the Space Program provides for approximately $4 billion to Florida's economy; and WHEREAS, the Shuttle Program is scheduled to be retired in 2010 and its replacement, the Constellations Program, is predicted to be operational in 2015; and WHEREAS, there will be a five-year gap in manned space flights launched from the United States during which time only China and Russia will launch humans into space; and WHEREAS, he United States has a strategic interest in maintaining the nation's preeminence in spaceflight; the spaceflight expertise at the Kennedy Space Center is a center of excellence that should be maintained after the discontinuance of Space Shuttle missions; and the United States has obligations to provide crew and cargo logistic services to the International Space Station after the Shuttle is retired; and WHEREAS, until the Constellations Program reaches operational status, the United States plans to fulfill those obligations by purchasing "seats" on Soyuz and Progress flights from Russia. These plans make the United States largely dependent on the Russian space program for access to the International Space Station for a five-year period; and WHEREAS, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has executed Space Act Agreements under the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) Program to provide crew and cargo logistics to the International Space Station; the COTS program provides for four different cargo and crew logistic capabilities known as A, B, C and D; and the United States is the world's premier spacefaring nation because the American aerospace industry has consistently provided solutions to national needs including those of NASA; and WHEREAS, these talents should be tasked to providing domestic solutions to America's crew and cargo logistic needs; and rather than being dependant on the Russian space program and spending resources on Russian 1