SPACE TRAVEL QUOTES

quotations about space travel and exploration

Space Travel quote

The Earth is the cradle of humanity, but mankind cannot stay in the cradle forever.

KONSTANTIN TSIOLKOVSKY

attributed, Final Frontier: The Pioneering Science and Technology of Exploring the Universe

Tags: Konstantin Tsiolkovsky


I'm sure the universe is full of intelligent life. It's just been too intelligent to come here.

ARTHUR C. CLARKE

IRC discussion at Scifi.com, November 1, 1996

Tags: Arthur C. Clarke


I don't think the human race will survive the next thousand years, unless we spread into space. There are too many accidents that can befall life on a single planet. But I'm an optimist. We will reach out to the stars.

STEPHEN HAWKING

The Daily Telegraph, October 16, 2001

Tags: Stephen Hawking


All civilizations become either spacefaring or extinct.

CARL SAGAN

Pale Blue Dot

Tags: Carl Sagan


Space is for everybody. It's not just for a few people in science or math, or for a select group of astronauts. That's our new frontier out there, and it's everybody's business to know about space.

CHRISTA MCAULIFFE

December 6, 1985


This is Major Tom to Ground Control
I'm stepping through the door
And I'm floating in a most peculiar way
And the stars look very different today
For here
Am I sitting in a tin can
Far above the world
Planet Earth is blue
And there's nothing I can do
Though I'm past one hundred thousand miles
I'm feeling very still
And I think my spaceship knows which way to go
Tell my wife I love her very much

DAVID BOWIE

"Space Oddity"


NASA spent millions of dollars inventing the ball-point pen so they could write in space. The Russians took a pencil.

ANONYMOUS


Ground Control to Major Tom
Your circuit's dead, there's something wrong
Can you hear me, Major Tom?
Can you hear me, Major Tom?
Can you hear me, Major Tom?

DAVID BOWIE

"Space Oddity"


The exploration of space will go ahead, whether we join in it or not, and it is one of the great adventures of all time, and no nation which expects to be the leader of other nations can expect to stay behind in the race for space.

JOHN F. KENNEDY

speech at Rice University, September 12, 1962


The time will come when man will know even what is going on in the other planets and perhaps be able to visit them.

HENRY FORD

Theosophist Magazine, February 1930

Tags: Henry Ford


Mankind is drawn to the heavens for the same reason we were once drawn into unknown lands and across the open sea. We choose to explore space because doing so improves our lives, and lifts our national spirit. So let us continue the journey.

GEORGE W. BUSH

speech at NASA Headquarters, January 14, 2004

Tags: George W. Bush


We cannot predict the new forces, powers, and discoveries that will be disclosed to us when we reach the other planets and set up new laboratories in space. They are as much beyond our vision today as fire or electricity would be beyond the imagination of a fish.

ARTHUR C. CLARKE

"Space and the Spirit of Man"


Those who came before us made certain that this country rode the first waves of the industrial revolutions, the first waves of modern invention, and the first wave of nuclear power, and this generation does not intend to founder in the backwash of the coming age of space. We mean to be a part of it--we mean to lead it. For the eyes of the world now look into space, to the moon and to the planets beyond, and we have vowed that we shall not see it governed by a hostile flag of conquest, but by a banner of freedom and peace. We have vowed that we shall not see space filled with weapons of mass destruction, but with instruments of knowledge and understanding.

JOHN F. KENNEDY

speech at Rice University, September 12, 1962

Tags: John F. Kennedy


The stars will never be won by little minds; we must be big as space itself.

ROBERT A. HEINLEIN

Double Star

Tags: Robert A. Heinlein


We are the light that travels into space.

ZERO 7

"Today"


A man who has been in another world does not come back unchanged. One can't put the difference into words. When the man is a friend it may become painful: the old footing is not easy to recover.

C. S. LEWIS

Perelandra

Tags: C. S. Lewis


It's a fixer-upper of a planet but we could make it work.

ELON MUSK

CEO of SpaceX, speaking about the possibility of humans colonizing Mars, May 2013


I believe that space travel will one day become as common as airline travel is today. I'm convinced, however, that the true future of space travel does not lie with government agencies -- NASA is still obsessed with the idea that the primary purpose of the space program is science -- but real progress will come from private companies competing to provide the ultimate adventure ride, and NASA will receive the trickle-down benefits.

BUZZ ALDRIN

Magnificent Desolation

Tags: Buzz Aldrin


Space travel is life-enhancing, and anything that's life-enhancing is worth doing. It makes you want to live forever.

RAY BRADBURY

Playboy, 1996

Tags: Ray Bradbury


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, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win.

JOHN F. KENNEDY

speech at Rice University, September 12, 1962