There has been no member of Congress more active in promoting space enterprise than Dana Rohrabacher. As Chairman of the Space and Aeronautics subcommittee, Dana did his best to open NASA to private contracting. He authored the Commercial Space Act which set liability standards that are a prerequisite to launching the space tourism industry. Other commercial ideas, liek space solar power and a competitive space launch industry were on his agenda. Today, as a senior member of the Science Committee he is still active in promoting space utilization, enterprise and exploration.

Representative Rohrabacher was also known for his efforts to deal with the potential threat of space objects. As a result of his leadership, NASA began a program to plot the course of space objects that could threaten millions of lives. The Planetary Society, recently joined by Representative Rohrabacher in calling for a greater commitment to this efforts. Rohrabacher is calling for cooperation with Russia and our European allies in establishing a program designed specifically to detect any object that might threaten the erath and then a plan to deflect it from hitting the earth, if possible.