Secretary Anthony Foxx

FAA’s Commercial Space Transportation Conference
February 4, 2015 • Washington, DC

Remarks as prepared for delivery

Thank you, George [Nield], for the introduction. And thanks everybody for coming out.

It’s wonderful to be here with the commercial space industry – and, for me, it’s sort of fitting given the week I’ve had.

On Monday, I was in Mountain View, California at Google Headquarters – they call it “the GooglePlex.” And I was there not only to drive in their driverless car – although, I did drive in it, and it was phenomenal – I was also there to launch a national conversation about how we can prepare our transportation system for future generations.

At USDOT, we’ve actually produced a document – called “Beyond Traffic” – to help guide that conversation, and to hammer down the trends and choices we face over the next thirty years. And as we were writing it, part of what we did was to look back at other transportation officials – and the visions of the future that THEY produced – and to see how useful they were. 

William Coleman, who served as secretary of transportation under Gerald Ford, was the first Cabinet member to put his ideas down on paper.

But really, probably the first future vision for transportation in America was written by a guy named Alfred Ely [Eli] Beach. He did it a century before William Coleman. And his story is chronicled in a new history book out this year – called The Race Underground – and I want to tell you a bit of it.  

On November 3, 1849, Alfred Beach published his vision in the form of an essay in the Scientific American – and it immediately got him labeled a “lunatic.”

You see, Alfred lived in New York City, at a time (not unlike today) when the city’s population was expanding faster than its routes of transportation. The streets were so congested with horses and buggies that, during the summer, traffic crawled forward – usually no faster than 5 miles per hour. Often, the horses would get frustrated, “rear up their legs… and the police would have to come out swinging their clubs.”

For Alfred Beach himself, this kind of traffic turned his couple-block walk to work into a treacherous hour-long commute.

So, he posed a very interesting question in the Scientific American: Why not travel in three dimensions, instead of two? Instead of continuing to travel on top of the street, why not travel under it?

He wanted – and I quote – “Nothing less than a railway underneath, than one above.”

Now, Beach’s idea was immediately dismissed. People thought he was nuts, and believed his idea would be – quote – “a menace to public health.” One critic wrote that it was “better to wait for the Devil than make roads down into Hell.”

But eventually, Beach’s idea gathered steam, and roughly 50 years later, it was a reality. 

Both Boston and New York opened subway systems.

Now, I tell this story because more than a century-and-a-half after Alfred Beach proposed traveling in three dimensions, you’re proposing traveling on yet another plane – not just underground… or in the air… but in space.

And even in 2015, some might react to the idea of commercial space travel in the same way that Beach’s critics reacted to him – that it’s just not feasible any time soon. That we should focus on our problems back here on Earth.

Some people and groups might react like that… But I’m here today to say: The US Department of Transportation will NOT be one of them.

In our 30-year framework I told you about – Beyond Traffic – we’re incredibly bullish about new technology and new business models – and their ability to revolutionize how we travel.

And that includes innovations made in – and by – the commercial space industry.

You can read about it in the document. We’ve posted it online.

We know that new vendors are competing to provide lower cost and more routine private space flight, eventually turning this once novel mode of transportation into a reality for many.

We expect that established vendors will provide cost-effective transportation for critical government or private-sector assets, like satellites.

And we understand that space tourism is highly likely at some point in the near future, and nearly a thousand tickets have already been purchased.

Already, we’re seeing communities across the country competing to host this emerging market and  investing public funds in infrastructure to support spaceport development.

And while we know it’s still a while away, the appeal of a two-hour suborbital flight from the East Coast to Asia continues to draw interest and research funds. It may take decades to become economically feasible, but I certainly look forward to taking that flight once it does.

Simply put, at USDOT, we’re leaning in on new technology. We want to help you bring your innovations from the lab to the skies as quickly – and most importantly – as safely as possible.

And by the way, the President’s budget released this week requests more funding for our Office of Commercial Space Transportation than ever before.

(Our position is what Pete Carrol’s and the Seahawks’ should’ve been on Sunday: We’re not afraid to go in the air – but only when it’s safe to do it).

So my message is: Help us help you.

Beyond Traffic was never intended to be a blue print. It can’t tell us exactly HOW we can move more people much faster and much smarter in 30 years.

But it can – and does – give all of us the latest data so we can begin coming up with big answers to the big questions. It relies on the collective genius of us all.

So go to www.dot.gov/beyondtraffic and share your ideas for how we can make commercial space travel as effective as possible… as safe as possible… and as soon as possible.

Thank you all. And I look forward to hearing from you.

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