The bittersweet and multiflora rose seem to do best along roadsides, often where transportation crews once planted them to attract birds and control erosion.
State transportation crews spent much of Wednesday rescuing stranded drivers and moving disabled and abandoned vehicles that littered the interstates, medians and shoulders.
Some NASA critics had hoped the administration would continue to push for a more radical overhaul of the space agency, but the Senate committee bill "really would accomplish the major shift that the president laid out in his plan," said Lori B. Garver, NASA's deputy administrator, in particular tapping commercial companies for the transportation of crew and cargo to the space station.
The priority in such times, he said, was safe and efficient transportation of crew and equipment into low earth orbit.
Most jacket installations located in offshore regions require daily transportation of crew with helicopter, which imposes huge operational costs on oil and gas companies.
Several Gemini Ferry spacecraft were proposed to provide transportation of crews and cargo to NASA and USAF space stations in low Earth orbit.
John Elbon, vice president for commercial crew transportation at Boeing, which is also interested in bidding for the NASA business, said Boeing's analysis showed that the NASA business would probably be enough to be profitable.
In the next phase, NASA is to hold a competition to provide crew transportation services, which will be open to all companies, not just the ones that received money in the current round.
There is still much debate, particularly in the US Congress, about the readiness of the private sector to provide safe crew transportation systems.
"Given enough time and money I am confident that multiple US companies could develop safe, reliable and cost effective commercial crew transportation systems," Mr McAlister said.
