Exploration is in our nature. We began as wanderers, and we are wanderers still. We have lingered long enough on the shores of the cosmic ocean. We are ready at last to set sail for the stars.

The desire to fly is an idea handed down to us by our ancestors who... looked enviously on the birds soaring freely through space... on the infinite highway of the air.

We are poor mortals, but it dreams to us that we can fly.

إنها خطوة صغيرة للإنسان وقفزة عملاقة للبشرية

We head out into space, ready for anything, which is to say, for solitude, arduous work, self-sacrifice, and death. Out of modesty we don’t say it aloud, but from time to time we think about how magnificent we are. In the meantime — in the meantime, we’re not trying to conquer the universe; all we want is to expand Earth to its limits.

I will fly I am born with potential I am born with goodness and trust I am born with ideas and dreams I am born with greatness I am born with confidence I am born with wings So, I am not meant for crawling, I have wings, I will fly I will fly and fly.

There is something in us that refuses to be regarded as less than human. We are created for freedom

The sky calls to us. If we do not destroy ourselves, we will one day venture to the stars.

Love is what it takes to fly

Planetary exploration satisfies our inclination for great enterprises and wanderings and quests that has been with us since our days as hunters and gatherers on the East African savannahs a million years ago. By chance — it is possible, I say, to imagine many skeins of historical causality in which this would not have transpired — in our age we are able to begin again.

Exploring other worlds employs precisely the same qualities of daring, planning, cooperative enterprise, and valor that mark the finest in military tradition. Never mind the night launch of an Apollo spacecraft bound for another world. That makes the conclusion foregone. Witness mere F-14s taking off from adjacent flight decks, gracefully canting left and right, afterburners flaming, and there’s something that sweeps you away — or at least it does me. And no amount of knowledge of the potential abuses of carrier task forces can affect the depth of that feeling. It simply speaks to another part of me. It doesn’t want recriminations or politics. It just wants to fly.

Humanity is destined to explore, settle, and expand outward into the universe.

We're the bridge across forever, arching above the sea, adventuring for our pleasure, living mysteries for the fun of it, choosing disasters triumphs challenges impossible odds, testing ourselves over and again, learning love and love and love!

What we do going forward defines who we are.

It’s time for the human race to enter the solar system.