SPACE TRAVEL QUOTES
quotations about space travel and exploration
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
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
All civilizations become either spacefaring or extinct.
CARL SAGAN
Pale Blue Dot
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
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"
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
NASA spent millions of dollars inventing the ball-point pen so they could write in space. The Russians took a pencil.
ANONYMOUS
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
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
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
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
The stars will never be won by little minds; we must be big as space itself.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN
Double Star
We are the light that travels into space.
ZERO 7
"Today"
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
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"
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
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
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
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