Quotes on Space Exploration

Equipped with his five senses, man explores the universe around him and calls the adventure Science.

Frequently on the lunar surface I said to myself, 'This is the Moon, that is the Earth. I'm really here, I'm really here!'

It is no coincidence that a rebirth of psychedelic use is occuring as we acquire the technological capability to leave the planet. The mushroom visions and the transformation of the human image precipitated by space exploration are spun together. Nothing less is happening than the emergence of a new human order. A telepathic, humane, universalist kind of human culture is emerging that will make everything that preceded it appear like the stone age.

This is one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.

NASA is an engine of innovation and inspiration as well as the world's premier space exploration agency, and we are well served by politicians working to keep it that way, instead of turning it into a mere jobs program, or worse, cutting its budget.

I don't know what you could say about a day in which you have seen four beautiful sunsets.

Mars is there, waiting to be reached.

To set foot on the soil of the asteroids, to lift by hand a rock from the Moon, to observe Mars from a distance of several tens of kilometers, to land on its satellite or even on its surface, what can be more fantastic? From the moment of using rocket devices a new great era will begin in astronomy: the epoch of the more intensive study of the firmament.

No one, it has been said, will ever look at the Moon in the same way again. More significantly can one say that no one will ever look at the earth in the same way. Man had to free himself from earth to perceive both its diminutive place in a solar system and its inestimable value as a life -fostering planet. As earthmen, we may have taken another step into adulthood. We can see our planet earth with detachment, with tenderness, with some shame and pity, but at last also with love.

How quickly do we grow accustomed to wonders. I am reminded of the Isaac Asimov story Nightfall, about the planet where the stars were visible only once in a thousand years. So awesome was the sight that it drove men mad. We who can see the stars every night glance up casually at the cosmos and then quickly down again, searching for a Dairy Queen.

The Earth is just too small and fragile a basket for the human race to keep all its eggs in.

I am proud to be part of a species where a subset of its members willingly put their lives at risk to push the boundaries of our existence.

My view of our planet was a glimpse of divinity.

Space exploration is a force of nature unto itself that no other force in society can rival.

It will free man from the remaining chains, the chains of gravity which still tie him to this planet.

We can lick gravity, but sometimes the paperwork is overwhelming.

We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things. Not because they are easy, but because they are hard.

I have a strong feeling about interesting people in space exploration. . . . And the only way it's going to happen is to have some kid fantasize about getting his ray gun, jumping into his spaceship, and flying into outer space.

I think we are at the dawn of a new era in commercial space exploration.

Our future lies with today's kids and tomorrow's space exploration.

If somebody'd said before the flight, 'Are you going to get carried away looking at the Earth from the Moon?' I would have say, 'No, no way.' But yet when I first looked back at the Earth, standing on the Moon, I cried.