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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Craig Stevens (202) 225-3671 October 18, 1999 craig.stevens@mail.house.gov www.house.gov/weldon WELDON SUCCESSFULLY SCRUBS TRIANA Project Considered "Wasteful" by Scientific Community WASHINGTON, DC - - Last week, The House of Representatives approved NASA's Fiscal Year 2000 budget. Included in the measure was a specific provision, recommended by Representative Dave Weldon, regarding the Vice President's controversial satellite program named Triana. The bill directs NASA to suspend all development work on Triana until the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) completes a thorough evaluation of Triana's true scientific merit and value. If Triana receives an unfavorable review from NAS the program will be terminated. Triana was created by Al Gore last year when the idea came to him in the middle of the night. A space camera would be placed in a special orbit which would enable it to provide a live video image of the Earth. The Vice-President then wants this image to be posted on the Internet calling it, "Earth Satellite Picture Access Network" or Earth-SPAN. "I'm glad that Congress has agreed with me to take a hard look at Triana before going any further with it," remarked Representative Dave Weldon (R-Palm Bay). "I am concerned with Triana's ever-expanding price tag, questionable scientific merit, and possible political overtones. Generally NASA projects are put through a rigorous peer-review process well before funding is even considered. This one was spared that and it shouldn't have been." Weldon was successful in passing an amendment that canceled Triana during the Science Committee's consideration of NASA's authorization bill. The Triana program subsequently received zero funding in the VA-HUD appropriations bill. Recently, Triana was the subject of a scathing General Accounting Office (GAO) report which said it could cost the tax payers over $200 million dollars and could be done with existing scientific methods. "For a nice view of the Earth just check out<http://weather.yahoo.com/graphics/satellite/US.html>. Let's cancel this project and save the taxpayers a few hundred million dollars," concluded Weldon.
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