Ted Cruz: “United States law is explicit and unequivocal on that 51 USC…”

“I think we could be paralleling these efforts and doing the near impossible, which is exactly why the American taxpayers funded NASA in the first place. Well, I will say on the question of whether NASA has to implement Moon, then Mars, United States law is explicit and unequivocal on that 51 USC section 20302, which Senator Cantwell and I wrote, says vision for space exploration, the administrator shall establish a program to develop a sustained human presence in cislunar space or on the moon as a stepping stone to future exploration of Mars and other destinations. The notion of the moon as a stepping stone is explicitly in US Law. Do you acknowledge that? Yes, I do, Senator.” (05:06–05:34)

This is an excerpt from a raw transcript. The assertions have not been audited or verified. Tap the video to view the source footage and understand the context.