Many say exploration is part of our destiny, but it’s actually our duty to future generations and their quest to ensure the survival of the human species. We have an infinite amount to learn both from nature and from each other. We are all connected; To each other, biologically. To the earth, chemically. To the rest of the universe atomically. We have an infinite amount to learn both from nature and from each other.

To be the first to enter the cosmos, to engage, single-handed, in an unprecedented duel with nature—could one dream of anything more?

Dinosaurs are extinct today because they lacked opposable thumbs and the brainpower to build a space program.

It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn’t feel like a giant. I felt very, very small.

NASA is not about the ‘Adventure of Human Space Exploration’…We won’t be doing it just to get out there in space – we’ll be doing it because the things we learn out there will be making life better for a lot of people who won’t be able to go. When I orbited the Earth in a spaceship, I saw for the first time how beautiful our planet is. Mankind, let us preserve and increase this beauty, and not destroy it!