Space Exploration Quotes

We will know which stars to visit. Our descendants will then skim the light years, the children of Thales and Aristarchus, Leonardo and Einstein. ~ Carl Sagan

A new consciousness is developing which sees the earth as a single organism and recognizes that an organism at war with itself is doomed. We are one planet. One of the great revelations of the age of space exploration is the image of the earth finite and lonely, somehow vulnerable, bearing the entire human species through the oceans of space and time. ~ Carl Sagan

There's a certain romanticism associated with exploration of space, which is one of the major factors why we'll continue. ~ John McCain

The Idoni Primor's gaze fell on Eren immediately. Her head tilted in idle curiosity while a fingertip dipped into a crystal bowl beside her. "I know your face, anarch."

She brought her fingertip to her mouth and sucked it dry of gods only feared what hypnol. "You have been a most troublesome little asi of late. Have you come here to repent, to fall to your knees and beg to be allowed to return to the fold? Fair warning - you'll be on those knees for a while. ~ G.S. Jennsen

Nothing is more symptomatic of the enervation, of the decompression of the Western imagination, than our incapacity to respond to the landings on the Moon. Not a single great poem, picture, metaphor has come of this breathtaking act, of Prometheus' rescue of Icarus or of Phaeton in flight towards the stars. ~ George Steiner

Alex thrust her hand and half her arm into the labyrinth of light.
Her stare blanked, and in the halo of the matrix her eyes and glyphs blazed so radiantly she looked as if she were being consumed by a primordial fire.

"She just stuck her hand into Machim Command's central server matrix!"

Caleb smiled, watching on in blatant awe. "She does that. ~ G.S. Jennsen

If there was anything the last year had taught her - if there was anything Caleb had taught her, the Metigen War had taught her - it was that perspective was everything.

If you wanted to understand your enemy, you must understand that they were the hero in their own story. ~ G.S. Jennsen

In the coming era of manned space exploration by the private sector, market forces will spur development and yield new, low-cost space technologies. If the history of private aviation is any guide, private development efforts will be safer, too. ~ Burt Rutan

Space exploration and experimentation are critically valuable to our nation. I know of no better way to honor those seven who sacrificed their lives than to recommit ourselves to defend and enhance America's important strategies in space. ~ Rob Bishop

We hold the future still timidly, but perceive it for the first time as a function of our own action. ~ J. D. Bernal

He wasn't going to be able to deactivate the field, which meant there was only one choice.

He'd realized early on that his arcane, profoundly alien passenger came with a cost, possibly one too high to pay and get out the other side free and clear. He'd pay it nonetheless and without complaint if the diati would only come through for him now.

Caleb closed his eyes. ~ G.S. Jennsen

And in that moment, I was hit with the realization that this delicate layer of atmosphere is all that protects every living thing on Earth from perishing in the harshness of space. ~ Ron Garan

One of the things I love about manned space exploration is that it forces people to unlace certain notions of what is and isn't acceptable. And possible. It's amazing what sometimes gets accomplished via an initially jarring but ultimately harmless shift in thinking. ~ Mary Roach

The partisanship surrounding space exploration and the retrenching of U.S. space policy are part of a more general trend: the decline of science in the United States. As its interest in science wanes, the country loses ground to the rest of the industrialized world in every measure of technological proficiency. ~ Neil DeGrasse Tyson

Like vacations back in Earth days when careers were a thing--an artificial moment sandwiched between dreams, reality and death. ~ Amy Tychell

Early SETI efforts were marked by overly optimistic estimates of the probable number of extraterrestrial civilizations in our galaxy. In light of new findings and insights, it seems appropriate to put excessive euphoria to rest and to take a more down-to-earth view. Earth may be more special, and intelligence much rarer, in the universe than previously thought.

Skeptical Inquirer Volume 30.3, May / June 2006 ~ Peter Schenkel

Mythology, science and space exploration are subjects that have fascinated me since my early childhood. And they were always connected somehow with the music I write. ~ Vangelis

The Anadens have a somewhat different perspective on death."

"On account of not having to deal with it, sure. Personally, I think their little immortality contrivance has destroyed the value of life for them."

"It brought you back."

"Thus I reserve the right to be hypocritical on this particular topic. ~ G.S. Jennsen

As I looked out at the glittering waters of the Pacific I was seeing for Carl. He knew that it's not for any one generation to see the completed picture. That's the point. The picture is never completed. There is always so much more that remains to be discovered. ~ Ann Druyan

Revealing water in significant quantities on the Moon could truly be a turning point in space exploration. ~ Peter Diamandis

Do I think it was inherent nobility that brought us out here?" He shook his head. "Maybe. I don't call it nobility, though. I think it's our innate human need to champion the underdog. We are constant optimists. We're the emotional descendents of the caveman who stood defiant in the front of the wooly mammoth. We rebuild cities at the base of Vesuvius, get back on the bicycle when we fall off, whack that hornet's nest every spring. Humans cheer for the couldn't be, believe in the shouldn't be. We love causes; the harder, the more lost they are, the more we love them. Is that nobility?Maybe. Maybe it's a pernicious genetic defect that makes our species susceptible to shared delusion. Whatever it is, it keeps life interesting. ~ Cassandra Davis

We cannot relive Apollo, but we can preserve its legacy; we can continue to tell the story. ~ Alan Bean

At the very moment that humans discovered the scale of the universe and found that their most unconstrained fancies were in fact dwarfed by the true dimensions of even the Milky Way Galaxy, they took steps that ensured that their descendants would be unable to see the stars at all. For a million years humans had grown up with a personal daily knowledge of the vault of heaven. In the last few thousand years they began building and emigrating to the cities. In the last few decades, a major fraction of the human population has abandoned a rustic way of life. As technology developed and the cities were polluted, the nights became starless. New generations grew to maturity wholly ignorant of the sky that had transfixed their ancestors and that had stimulated the modern age of science and technology. Without even noticing, just as astronomy entered a golden age most people cut themselves off from the sky, a cosmic isolationism that ended only with the dawn of space exploration. ~ Carl Sagan

Mir astronaut Jerry Linenger writes in his memoir that he was surprised to find a bottle of cognac in one arm of his spacesuit and a bottle of whiskey in the other. (Linenger was the Frank Burns of space exploration: ~ Mary Roach

When, in the fifteenth century, some audacious mariners who had sailed from Europe discovered America, nothing seemed to justify such a venture in the eyes of their contemporaries. Today, however, we can see it has given birth to the twentieth-century United States. Don't you think the existence of the United States constitutes a valid reason for Columbus's wild scheme... ~ Pierre Boulle

I'll gloss right over the implication in what you said that the Reor are sentient entities - for now. Dare I ask why they gave you a copy of their universal decryption key?"

Alex and Caleb shared a look, and she shrugged. "We can only speculate, but it's possible they want us to win."

Miriam dropped her elbows on the table. "Hmm. Okay. In that case, I welcome the minerals to our side of the fight. ~ G.S. Jennsen

Space narratives usually leave out Indigenous people and often 'non-spacefaring' nations too – which is a large chunk of the world. We can't afford to do that any longer, not if we're truly committed to space being for all humanity. ~ Alice Gorman

It's beyond imagination until you actually get up and see it and experience it and feel it. ~ William C. McCool

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

That which interests most people leaves me without any interest at all. This includes a list of things such as: social dancing, riding roller coasters, going to zoos, picnics, movies, planetariums, watching tv, baseball games; going to funerals, weddings, parties, basketball games, auto races, poetry readings, museums, rallies, demonstrations, protests, children's plays, adult plays ... I am not interested in beaches, swimming, skiing, Christmas, New Year's, the 4th of July, rock music, world history, space exploration, pet dogs, soccer, cathedrals and great works of Art. How can a man who is interested in almost nothing write about anything? Well, I do. I write and I write about what's left over: a stray dog walking down the street, a wife murdering her husband, the thoughts and feelings of a rapist as he bites into a hamburger sandwich; life in the factory, life in the streets and rooms of the poor and mutilated and the insane, crap like that, I write a lot of crap like that ~ Charles Bukowski

One of the key principles of the Outer Space Treaty is that space is the common heritage of humanity and cannot be owned by anyone – government, nation, individual or corporation. Space is very colonial: we talk of the 'conquest' of space, the 'high frontier' or the 'final frontier', colonising other planets, and the innate urge of human beings to explore, often without thinking about it; it's such a strong master narrative. Instead of considering the treaty to be outdated, we might equally think of it as a radical statement of equality and justice – and one we need more than ever. ~ Alice Gorman

... the heritage of mankind is not the earth but the entire universe, ~ Pierre Boulle

I frankly expected a far more negative reaction from you on discovering…" she glanced around the lab "…the situation. Why are you helping?"

"I'm not helping - I'm merely not hindering in as strenuous a fashion as I am able. ~ G.S. Jennsen

Why? Why did you kill them?"

He laughed, recognizing it bore a frightening coldness. "Because you walked through the wrong door, and they paid you to do it. You will be a testament to the terror that arrives the moment you or anyone else crosses the invisible line you didn't know existed until tonight. Spread the word. ~ G.S. Jennsen

Bringing an asteroid back to Earth? What's that have to do with space exploration? If we were moving outward from there, and an asteroid is a good stopping point, then fine. But now it's turned into a whole planetary defense exercise at the cost of our outward exploration. ~ Buzz Aldrin

NASA's annual budget for space exploration could fund NOAA's budget for ocean exploration for 1600 years. ~ Robert Ballard

Ever since there have been people, there have been explorers, looking in places where other hadn't been before. Not everyone does it, but we are part of a species where some members of the species do-to the benefit of us all. ~ Neil DeGrasse Tyson

You ask me to make peace with the monsters who did this?"

She didn't even look around at 'this.' "Yes. The alternative is extinction. There's no coming back from that - no new weapon to fire when no one is left and you've no universe left to fire it in. ~ G.S. Jennsen

Leave your home, O youth, and seek out alien shores. A wider range of life has been ordained for you. ~ Petronius

We've had exactly five balanced budgets since Alan Shepherd rode Freedom 7 in 1961. If we had put off space exploration until these earthbound social and economic conundrums were solved, our rocketry would be about where North Korea's is today. ~ Charles Krauthammer

Mars is there, waiting to be reached. ~ Buzz Aldrin

I believe we can do more in making the President's vision for space exploration a reality by awarding cash prizes to encourage greater participation of the private sector in the national space program. ~ Dana Rohrabacher

Alex peered behind her to see Noah fussing over a scrape on Kennedy's cheek. "Unless someone's bleeding to death, first aid will have to wait. You'll want to strap into the jump seats.

"This could get interesting, and that's before we get clear of the station. ~ G.S. Jennsen

The choice is: the Universe ... or nothing. ~ H.G.Wells

despite professing a deep distrust of traditional institutions of authority such as governments – conspiracy theories actually reveal an extraordinary faith in the organizational aptitude and institutional discipline of such bodies. Consider the scheming, forward planning, and perpetual fidelity to an agenda that would be required for governments and/or military operations to prosecute an effective conspiracy. Surely the effort involved in a four-and- a-half-decade intergovernmental ruse required to fake the Apollo 11 moon landing would dwarf the cost and organization of a moon landing itself. The conspiracy would be, in many ways, a grander accomplishment than the space exploration it purportedly fabricates. (Then again, perhaps the conspiracist counter is that the substantial sums once diverted to NASA are now being allocated to government programs designed to fake all levels of space exploration...) ~ Chris Fleming

Don't talk. Don't sputter out a solitary protest or it will be your last. Take me to them."

"Who the f**k are you?"

He palmed the man's forehead and slammed his skull against the wall. "I said don't talk, and you want to do as I say. I'm the one thing monsters like you and your kind fear. I'm what haunts your nightmares and hunts you in the darkness. ~ G.S. Jennsen

Frank White, who literally wrote the book on the overview effect, is also part of the Overview Institute. And he thinks of space travel largely as Mitchell does - an evolutionary step. "If fish could think at our level of intelligence," White said, "back before humanity existed, and some fish were starting to venture up on land, a lot of them would be saying, just as we do now about space: 'Why would we want to go there? What's the point?' And they'd have literally no idea of what venturing onto land was going to mean". ~ Steve Volk

Had (President) Kennedy turned to his advisers and wailed, "What can we beat the Russians at?" and if someone had cried "Backgammon!" at that point, Apollo would never have happened. ~ Andrew Smith

When someone tells me, 'Oh, we have so many problems on Earth; space exploration costs too much money,' I say, 'I absolutely agree with you. But I still hope we do it.' ~ Mary Roach

Houston, Tranquillity Base here. The Eagle has landed. ~ Neil Armstrong

The sky is but a looking glass into a pool of airless oceans, cast off into a dance of light and energy, leaving only a facet of guidance to navigate. Such an existence lays but within the mind man. ~ Indiana Lang

Part of what drives us to explore and discover is the intangible: expanding our horizons, feeding our curiosity, finding all those unexpected things, and trying to answer those profound questions discussed in previous chapters, like how did the universe begin? How did life begin? Are we alone? ~ Nancy Atkinson

Today, we are on a path of decay. We are seeing the book close on five decades of accomplishment as the leader in human space exploration. ~ Eugene Cernan

Laches faded away, leaving Miriam standing facing Hyperion, the Metigen who had orchestrated the slaughter of over fifty million people a short year ago.

There were limits to even deals with the devil, lines which should never be crossed…but she was beginning to wonder when she might find one. ~ G.S. Jennsen

We're doing it wrong, absolutely wrong! Miss Universe should be about Space Exploration, Miss World about Science and Miss Earth about Going Green! ~ Manasa Rao

Our universe is a sorry little affair unless it has in it something for every age to investigate. ~ Seneca.

God has no intention of setting a limit to the efforts of man to conquer space. ~ Pope Pius XII

There are so many benefits to be derived from space exploration and exploitation; why not take what seems to me the only chance of escaping what is otherwise the sure destruction of all that humanity has struggled to achieve for 50,000 years? ~ Isaac Asimov

Reluctantly, we had already accepted every challenge at the moment we were born. And as long as we live, we have no right to give up. For we, or at least someone very similar to us, already died once, long ago in a faraway place. ~ Jeno Marz

Since, in the long run, every planetary civilization will be endangered by impacts from space, every surviving civilization is obliged to become spacefaring
not because of exploratory or romantic zeal, but for the most practical reason imaginable: staying alive ... If our long-term survival is at stake, we have a basic responsibility to our species to venture to other worlds. ~ Carl Sagan

Space exploration may pull in the talent, but war pays the bills. ~ Neil DeGrasse Tyson

Many people object to "wasting money in space" yet have no idea how much is actually spent on space exploration. The CSA's budget, for instance, is less than the amount Canadians spend on Halloween candy every year, and most of it goes toward things like developing telecommunications satellites and radar systems to provide data for weather and air quality forecasts, environmental monitoring and climate change studies. Similarly, NASA's budget is not spent in space but right here on Earth, where it's invested in American businesses and universities, and where it also pays dividends, creating new jobs, new technologies and even whole new industries. ~ Chris Hadfield

The possibilities of life are endless... ~ Mark Higbee

Glacier blue plasma rippled and sparked across the interior of the portal. "It seems keeping secrets is what you do."

"Secrets are merely the necessary means. Survival is the end goal. Survival of ourselves, survival of species who do not deserve to be eradicated from the universe. Survival of the universe itself."

"Survival's noble and all, but what good is it without the freedom to live as you choose?"

"A question you have the luxury to ask because you survive. ~ G.S. Jennsen

Houston, that may have seemed like a very long final phase. The autotargeting was taking us right into a ... crater, with a large number of big boulders and rocks ... and it required ... flying manually over the rock field to find a reasonably good area. ~ Neil Armstrong

Everyone I have spoken with about working with the Russians in space exploration believes that the United States has learned a great deal from Russia and that Russia has learned a great deal from the United States – and that the entire international space partnership is much better because of it. ~ Ron Garan

If we are to send people, it must be for a very good reason - and with a realistic understanding that almost certainly we will lose lives. Astronauts and Cosmonauts have always understood this. Nevertheless, there has been and will be no shortage of volunteers. ~ Carl Sagan

We go into space because whatever mankind must undertake, free men must fully share. ~ John F. Kennedy

I've completed half of my space training at Space City in Moscow. I love adventure, and I've been training in a centrifuge and MiG Fighter with a view to going into space and being a spokesman for space exploration! ~ Brian Blessed

Sci-fi is very much an American genre. Space and the exploration of space is something so closely associated with America. ~ Ben Richards

Retain the vision for space exploration. If we turn our backs on the vision again, we're going to have to live in a secondary position in human space flight for the rest of the century. ~ Buzz Aldrin

I find these comparisons particularly poignant: life versus death, hope versus fear. Space exploration and the highly mechanized destruction of people use similar technology and manufacturers, and similar human qualities of organization and daring. Can we not make the transition from automated aerospace killing to automated aerospace exploration of the solar system in which we live? ~ Carl Sagan

You can't solve problems until you understand the other side." –Jeffrey Manber ~ Ron Garan

Is manned space exploration important? Yes - not least because it simply works much better than sending robots. ~ Henry Spencer

Space exploration is inherently dangerous. If my focus ever wavers in the classroom or during an eight-hour simulation, I remind myself of one simple fact: space flight might kill me. ~ Chris Hadfield

Evening had turned the sky a deep persimmon. The remaining sunlight enriched the colors of the ubiquitous flowers and foliage to even greater vibrancy, as if the saturation filter had been notched up several levels.

Caleb noted all this in passing as he strode deliberately forward. He didn't know how he was going to do this, only that he had to make the attempt. ~ G.S. Jennsen

But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask; why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas? ~ John F. Kennedy

There are so many problems to solve on this planet first before we begin to trash other worlds. ~ E.A. Bucchianeri

Space agencies keep a firm grip on their public image, and it's less troublesome for employees and contractors to say no to someone like me than to take their chances and see what I write. Happily there are people involved in the human side of space exploration who see value in unconventional coverage(or are just plain too nice to say no). For their candor and wit - and the generosity with which they shared their time and know-how - super-galactic thanks. ~ Mary Roach

We'll get to the details of what's around here, but it looks like a collection of just about every variety of shape - angularity, granularity, about every variety of rock ... The colors - well ... There doesn't appear to be too much of a general color at all; however, it looks as though some of the rocks and boulders are going to have some interesting colors to them. Over. ~ Buzz Aldrin

Her head dropped into her hands. Dammit!

She'd spent months preparing for the challenges of a war against an immortal enemy wielding vastly superior numbers. She'd spent years preparing for the challenges of leading an assemblage of disparate fleets headed by disparate personalities. But it had never occurred to her to prepare for the challenges of her dead husband walking back into her life in the middle of both.

She had no idea what to do, but she was fairly certain she was doing it wrong. ~ G.S. Jennsen

Another principle that I believe can be justified by scientific evidence so far is that nobody is going to emigrate from this planet not ever ... It will be far cheaper, and entail no risk to human life, to explore space with robots. The technology is already well along ... the real thrill will be in learning in detail what is out there ... It is an especially dangerous delusion if we see emigration into space as a solution to be taken when we have used up this planet ... Earth, by the twenty-second century, can be turned, if we so wish, into a permanent paradise for human beings ... ~ Edward O. Wilson

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

I'm really hopeful about the future of space exploration and human spaceflight. Civilization as we know it has been defined by exploration. You know, we need to go off and find out what's around the next corner and what's just beyond what we already know. It's part of our being; it's part of our moral fiber to go off and explore. ~ Alan G. Poindexter

In the 19th Century people were looking for the Northwest Passage. Ships were lost and brave people were killed, but that doesn't mean we never went back to that part of the world again, and I consider it the same in space exploration. ~ John L. Phillips

The venture into space is meaningless unless it coincides with a certain interior expansion, an ever-growing universe within, to correspond with the far flight of the galaxies our telescopes follow from without. ~ Loren Eiseley

Is there someone out there in space? They must be thinking the same. ~ KRJPD

The universe is not ordered, and it will not become so simply because one wishes it. The universe is chaos made manifest. The military does a fine job of creating an illusion of structure, of dependable rules to provide an answer for every situation.

"But it is only an illusion, one which on its best days holds the chaos at bay. ~ G.S. Jennsen

Mia stood between the bed and the broken window, holding an active plasma blade at waist-height in front of her. A thick coat of blood stained the plasma nearly from hilt to tip, hissing as it dribbled from blade to floor.

"Are you all right?"

Mia gave her a wan, distant smile. "It's okay. I've done it before. ~ G.S. Jennsen

Why a journey into space? Because science is now learning that the infinite reaches of our universe probably teem with as much life and adventure as Earth's own oceans and continents. Our galaxy alone is so incredibly vast that the most conservative mathematical odds still add up to millions of planets almost identical to our own - capable of life, even intelligence and strange new civilizations. Alien beings that will range from the fiercely primitive to the incredibly exotic intelligence which will far surpass Mankind. (The Hollywood Reporter, Sept. 8, 1966) ~ Gene Roddenberry

We'd never have got a chance to go outside and look at the earth if it hadn't been for space exploration and NASA. ~ James Lovelock

I believe we need a more opportunistic and democratic approach to lunar exploration, now that we're shifting from U.S. government-sponsored space exploration to private expeditions. ~ Naveen Jain

We should explore new ways to drive down the cost of space travel. instead of costly booster rockets, maybe we should think of laser/microwave driven rockets, or space elevators. Until then, the cost of space exploration will limit our ability to explore the universe. ~ Michio Kaku

When we explore the cosmos, we come to believe and prove that we can solve problems that have never been solved. It brings out the best in us. Space exploration imbues everyone with an optimistic view of the future. ~ Bill Nye

The news media reported the $250 million as an unthinkably huge waste of money and proclaimed that something was wrong with NASA. The result was an investigation and a congressional hearing. Not to defend failure, but $250 million is not much more than the cost to produce Kevin Costner's film flop Waterworld. ~ Neil DeGrasse Tyson

Ideally, the ISS program will just be one more incremental step on an expanding, incredible journal of exploration and understanding, taking us higher and farther. ~ Ron Garan

I am deeply grieved by the loss of the crew of Columbia. I express my sincere condolences to the families and friends of the astronauts. I believe that their names will remain as the bright sparkling stars in the universe and will light the way for those who will follow them on the difficult roads of space exploration. ~ Valentina Tereshkova

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

Just because your electronics are better than ours, you aren't necessarily superior in any way. Look, imagine that you humans are a man in LA with a brand-new Trujillo and we are a nuhp in New York with a beat-up old Ford. The two fellows start driving toward St. Louis. Now, the guy in the Trujillo is doing 120 on the interstates, and the guy in the Ford is putting along at 55; but the human in the Trujillo stops in Vegas and puts all of his gas money down the hole of a blackjack table, and the determined little nuhp cruises along for days until at last he reaches his goal. It's all a matter of superior intellect and the will to succeed.
Your people talk a lot about going to the stars, but you just keep putting your money into other projects, like war and popular music and international athletic events and resurrecting the fashions of previous decades. If you wanted to go into space, you would have. ~ George Alec Effinger

The United States was not built by those who waited and rested and wished to look behind them. This country was conquered by those who moved forward, and so will space. ~ John F. Kennedy