Click here to watch Sen. Wicker’s floor speech.

Excerpt from Chairman Wicker’s remarks, as delivered, below:

…

Michael Collins wrote during that lonely flight, while his two colleagues were walking on the face of the Moon, “I am absolutely isolated from any known life. I am it. If a count were taken, the score would be three billion plus two over the other side of the Moon, and one plus God knows what on this side…”

These three men were separated from the rest of humanity, but they certainly were not alone. Hundreds of millions of people watched and prayed and gave them their best wishes. It is hard to believe – I still have to pinch myself – to think that I was a freshman in college for this Moon walk and that was 50 years ago; how could 50 years pass by so quickly?

You know, Mr. President, men and women have always looked up at the night sky and seen their heroes in the constellations. Now we still look up at the sky and we see our heroes, but among them are astronauts who go to the stars and return, and will go to the Moon and to Mars and return. I want to salute the people who have done it before and the people who are making plans to put a man and woman on the face of the Moon within five years.

…

And so as we celebrate the 50th anniversary, we look toward the future – to all the missions that will come and go. And we remind ourselves of this country’s common purpose and potential. The Moon landing was not the end of an age of discovery, it was only the beginning.