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Congressional Daily Record
This section is a tribute, commemoration, or district-facing statement. It mentions members such as George Whitesides.
Issued
March 25, 2026
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Download official House Record PDFReturn to issue contextMr. WHITESIDES asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
Mr. WHITESIDES. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor a great pilot and an even greater human being, Mike Melvill, who passed away last week at the age of 85.
frontier. In 2004, the world watched in awe as he piloted SpaceShipOne into space, not once, but twice. In doing so, he earned the first FAA Commercial Space Astronaut Wings and became the first person to travel into space aboard a privately-developed spacecraft.
partnership. Mike and his wife, Sally, shared a wonderfully happy marriage that began as childhood sweethearts in South Africa and carried them through the early days of Mojave past the edge of space.
Mike was as humble as he was talented. He opened up space for everyone.
Mr. Speaker, I offer my deepest condolences to Sally and the Melvill family, and I wish Mike blue skies and tailwinds.