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. Buy why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may as well ask why climb the highest mountain? Houston, Tranquillity Base here. The Eagle has landed.
There can be no thought of finishing for ‘aiming for the stars.’ Both figuratively and literally, it is a task to occupy the generations. And no matter how much progress one makes, there is always the thrill of just beginning. Spaceflights cannot be stopped. This is not the work of any one man or even a group of men. It is a historical process which mankind is carrying out in accordance with the natural laws of human development.The dreams of yesterday are the hopes of today and the reality of tomorrow.
Astronomy compels the soul to look upward, and leads us from this world to another. You know, being a test pilot isn’t always the healthiest business in the world. Space, the final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.
You know, being a test pilot isn’t always the healthiest business in the world. 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. Dinosaurs are extinct today because they lacked opposable thumbs and the brainpower to build a space program. 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! Science cuts two ways, of course; its products can be used for both good and evil. But there’s no turning back from science. The early warnings about technological dangers also come from science.
Curious that we spend more time congratulating people who have succeeded than encouraging people who have not. Problems look mighty small from 150 miles up.
Astronomy compels the soul to look upward, and leads us from this world to another. 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. Spaceflights cannot be stopped. This is not the work of any one man or even a group of men. It is a historical process which mankind is carrying out in accordance with the natural laws of human development.
To go places and do things that have never been done before – that’s what living is all about.
