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The G-forces Increased And I Wasn't Able To Continue To Hold The Camera Against The Window, So I Had To Lay It Back Against My Chest, But Still Continued To Photograph The Re-entry Until There Was No More Unusual Visual Effects Of The Energy In The Atmosphere. And It Was Very Comforting To Understand That The People In Houston, The Controllers, Had Very High Confidence That We Were On The Right Path.

-Buzz Aldrin

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The G-forces Increased And

Buzz Aldrin

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The G-forces Increased And I Wasn't Able To Continue To Hold The Camera Against The Window, So I Had To Lay It Back Against My Chest, But Still Continued To Photograph The Re-entry Until There Was No More Unusual Visual Effects Of The Energy In The Atmosphere. And It Was Very Comforting To Understand That The People In Houston, The Controllers, Had Very High Confidence That We Were On The Right Path.

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The Honor You Have Given Us Goes Not To Us As A Crew, But To ... All Americans, Who Believed, Who Persevered With Us. What Apollo Has Begun We Hope Will Spread Out In Many Directions, Not Just In Space, But Underneath The Seas, And In The Cities To Tell Us Unforgettably What We Will And Must Do. There Are Footprints On The Moon. Those Footprints Belong To Each And Every One Of You, To All Mankind. They Are There Because Of The Blood, Sweat, And Tears Of Millions Of People. Those Footprints Are The Symbol Of True Human Spirit.

As A Student, I Wrote English Reports On Science Fiction.

Science Fiction

Globalisation Means Many Other Countries Are Asserting Themselves And Trying To Take Over Leadership. Please Don't Ask Americans To Let Others Assume The Leadership Of Human Exploration. We Can Do Wonderful Science On The Moon, And Wonderful Commercial Things. Then We Can Pack Up And Move On To Mars.

We Can Continue To Try And Clean Up The Gutters All Over The World And Spend All Of Our Resources Looking At Just The Dirty Spots And Trying To Make Them Clean. Or We Can Lift Our Eyes Up And Look Into The Skies And Move Forward In An Evolutionary Way.

Some Things Just Can't Be Described. And Stepping Onto The Moon Was One Of Them.

We Should Go Boldly Where Man Has Not Gone Before. Fly By The Comets, Visit Asteroids, Visit The Moon Of Mars. There's A Monolith There. A Very Unusual Structure On This Potato Shaped Object That Goes Around Mars Once In Seven Hours. When People Find Out About That They're Going To Say 'who Put That There? Who Put That There?' The Universe Put It There. If You Choose, God Put It There.

When We Can Demonstrate That We Can Take Off Horizontally And Put Something Into Orbit, Then We Can Begin To Talk About Increasing The Amount Of Payload. But To Say, 'i'm Going To Do That And Put People Into Orbit' Is A Real Leap.

There's A Need For Accepting Responsibility - For A Person's Life And Making Choices That Are Not Just Ones For Immediate Short-term Comfort. You Need To Make An Investment, And The Investment Is In Health And Education.

The View From Space Is Like Having A Globe On Your Desk -- It's A Broadening Experience.

For Every Winner, There's A Loser. And That Person Didn't Really Need To Lose. They Just Didn't Understand The Game Plan.

The Guys Who Walk On Mars Are Going To Be Historic.

Certainly, I've Never Wanted To Live On Past Achievements.

The Future Is About Wings And Wheels And New Forms Of Space Transportation, Along With Our Deep-space Ambition To Set Foot On Another World In Our Solar System: Mars. I Firmly Believe We Will Establish Permanence On That Planet. And In Reaching For That Goal, We Can Cultivate Commercial Development Of The Moon, The Asteroid Belt, The Red Planet Itself And Beyond.

When You're In A Spacecraft, You Need To Know What Things You Can Touch And What Things You Shouldn't Touch!

A Hybrid Human-robot Mission To Investigate An Asteroid Affords A Realistic Opportunity To Demonstrate New Technological Capabilities For Future Deep-space Travel And To Test Spacecraft For Long-duration Spaceflight.

Any Observations From The Moon Or A Sense Of Realising This Or That About The Greater Meaning Of Things Wasn't As Influential For Me As The Experience Of Coming Back And Dealing With Being A Person Who's Been To The Moon.

There Are A Lot Of Reasons For Not Doing Something. And If Humanity Had Come Up With All The Reasons For Not Doing Something We Wouldn't Have Spread Across The Earth The Way We Have. There's A Curiosity, And I Would Submit That That Curiosity Will Put Human Beings On The Surface Of Mars.

To Move Forward, What's Required Is A Unified Space Agenda Based On Exploration, Science, Development, Commerce, And Security.

The First Human Beings To Land On Mars Should Not Come Back To Earth. They Should Be The Beginning Of A Build-up Of A Colony/settlement, I Call It A 'permanence'.

I Know: If You're Looking Down At Earth, You're Looking Through An Atmosphere That Has A Bit Of Haze In Many Places And Not Just Occasional Clouds.

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.

You Can Never Tell When A Commercial Space Venture Will Suddenly Become Viable.

Timing Has Always Been A Key Element In My Life. I Have Been Blessed To Have Been In The Right Place At The Right Time.

Mars Is Far More Attractive As An Outpost Colony For Earthlings Than The Moon Is.

When I Was A Little Kid, We Only Knew About Our Nine Planets. Since Then, We've Downgraded Pluto But Have Discovered That Other Solar Systems And Stars Are Common. So Life Is Probably Quite Prevalent.

Six Out Of Seven Times We Landed Successfully [on The Moon]. I Wanted To Be A Part Of That And I Was A Part Of That, So My Personal Feeling Is Of Great Gratefulness For Having Somehow Been In A Position To Have Been Given The Opportunity To Be On That First Landing. That's A Marvelous Experience For A Little Kid That Grew Up In New Jersey. So I'm Very Thankful, And I Asked The Whole World To Give Thanks Once We Successfully Landed.

Somebody Would Think I Was Trying To Get Favored Treatment Because My Ancestors Had The Name Moon. And That's A Joke.

We Can't Start Over And Develop A Saturn 5-type Vehicle From Scratch.

You Can Tell I'm Not Too Bashful About Some Of My Feelings.

I Want People To Go Into Space, To Orbit Around The World A Few Times, Even To Stay There For 24 Hours And Then Come Back To Where They Took Off. And I Also Want People With A Low Income To Be Able To Do That, Not Only Rich People.

For The Future, Primarily, We Must Educate People In Science, Engineering, Technology And Math.

Nobody Ever Asks Who Was The Seventh Person On The Moon. The Only Thing They Know Is Who's Number One And Who's Number Two. Does Anybody Know Who The Last Man Was?

The Feeling Of Reduced Gravity And The Limitations Of The Space Suit Resulted In A Slow-motion Movement. Perhaps Not Too Far From A Trampoline, But Without The Springiness And Instability.

America's Can-do Spirit Cast A Warm Glow Across Nations And Cultures, Generating More Goodwill And Support For Our Country's Ideals And Causes Than Had Otherwise Been Possible.

Russia Perhaps Is Still Entertaining The Possibility That The Moons Of Mars Might Have Access To Ice Or Water.

There Is Very Little Doubt, In My Mind, That What The Next Monumental Achievement Of Humanity Will Be The First Landing By An Earthling, A Human Being, On The Planet Mars.

Drive Over To The Nearest Airport, And Enroll In Flight Classes. You Will Experience The Joy Of Freedom In The Air Above, As You Study The Mechanics Of How This Is Made Possible By Understanding The Construction, The Laws Of Motion, The Air That Can Provide Lift When It Is Moved By Propulsion Through The Air, And Stay Above The Gravity Pulling The Airplane Back Down To Earth.

Apollo 11 Will Probably Go Down In History As One Of The Major Responses Of Two Nations Facing Each Other With Threatening Technologies - Sometimes Called Mutually Assured Destruction. It Was Also The America's Response To The Apparent Superiority Of The Russians In Putting Objects Into Space Before Usa Could.

Mars Is There, Waiting To Be Reached.

My First Inclination Is To Be A Bit Skeptical About The Claims That Human-produced Carbon Dioxide Is The Direct Contributor To Global Warming.

I Felt Pretty Confident In Relieving Myself, Since I Had The Urge.

The Government Needs A Role In Carrying Out Exploration. They Will Be Leading The Development Of The Engines That Are Needed, And The Private Sector Will Take Advantage Of Those.

When The Time Comes To Start Building Deep Space Transports And Refueling Rocket Tankers, It Will Be The Commercial Industry That Steps Up, Not Another Government-owned, Government-managed Enterprise.

Astronauts Are Not Superhuman. They Lead Ordinary Lives And Have Varied Personalities.

I Was The First Navy, Marine Or Air Force Person Who Had Been An Astronaut To Return Back To The Air Force. I Had Certain Expectations About What Would Be A Reasonable And Desirable Position To Be Assigned To After My Years Of Service.

I Do Celebrity Ski Races All Over The World.

By Refocusing Our Space Program On Mars For America's Future, We Can Restore The Sense Of Wonder And Adventure In Space Exploration That We Knew In The Summer Of 1969. We Won The Moon Race; Now It's Time For Us To Live And Work On Mars, First On Its Moons And Then On Its Surface.

I Am Definitely Not Rich.

I've Been To The Titanic In A Yellow Submarine And The North Pole In A Russian Nuclear Ice Breaker.

I Think There Would Be No Shortage Of Applicants To The Government Astronaut Corps To Be Settlers On The Planet Mars. And I Think This Would Be Very Inspiring.

Fear And Worry Are Emotions That Cloud The Mind From Being Able To Think Clearly, To Remember What The Procedures Are To Deal With That Emergency.

I Expected The Unexpected And Went [on The Moon] With An Open Mind. I Think The Visual Scene Was Described By My Words On First Landing - "magnificent Desolation." Magnificent For The Achievement Of Being There, And Desolate For The Eons Of Lifelessness.

I Grew Up In A Country That I Thought Was Special. And It Was.

I Am Excited To Think That The Development Of Commercial Capabilities To Send Humans Into Low Earth Orbit Will Likely Result In So Many More Earthlings Being Able To Experience The Transformative Power Of Space Flight.

The Surface Of The Moon Is Like Nothing Here On Earth! It's Totally Lacking Any Evidence Of Life. It Has Lots Of Fine, Talcum-powderlike Dust Mixed With A Complete Variety Of Pebbles, Rocks, And Boulders. Many Pebbles, Fewer Rocks, And Even Fewer Boulders Naturally Make Up Its Surface. The Dust Is A Very Fine, Overall Dark Gray. And With No Air Molecules To Separate The Dust, It Clings Together Like Cement.

I Was Not The Commander, I Was A Junior Person, So Once Both Were Outside, I Followed My Leader, Because We (nasa) Had Not Put Together Detailed Jobs Of People Outside. I Believe It Could Have Been Improved. But It Was Very Successful For What It Was.

My Petite Little Platinum Blonde Beauty Of A Wife Suddenly Turned Into A Public-relations Dynamo. "the Business Is Buzz!" She Proclaimed, And Indeed So It Became.

I Inherited Depression From My Mother's Side Of The Family.

There's No Guarantee That The United States Will Be Around 200 Years From Now.

Guarantees That

I Want To Keep On The Move, Keep Stimulated And Challenged.

A Mind Concerned About Danger Is A Clouded Mind. It's Paralyzing.

The Energy Varies With The Square Of The Velocity, So If You Need Five Times The Velocity, That's 25 Times The Energy.

When President Kennedy Took Office, I Was In The Midst Of My Education.

President Kennedy

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No Dream Is Too High For Those With Their Eyes In The Sky!

The Life Expectancy Of People Going To Mars May Be Decreased By The Higher Level Of Radiation That They Receive.

We Feel That This Stands As A Symbol Of The Insatiable Curiosity Of All Mankind To Explore The Unknown.

There May Be Aliens In Our Milky Way Galaxy, And There Are Billions Of Other Galaxies. The Probability Is Almost Certain That There Is Life Somewhere In Space.

The Best Way To Study Mars Is With Two Hands, Eyes And Ears Of A Geologist, First At A Moon Orbiting Mars... And Then On The Surface.

My Sunday Mornings Are Spent In A Recovery Meeting In Pacific Palisades.

I Feel We Need To Remind The World About The Apollo Missions And That We Can Still Do Impossible Things.

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Walking Around On The Moon Was Significantly Easier Than We'd Thought It Would Be. There Weren't Any Balance Problems, So You Weren't Tumbling Over.

Computers Allow Us To Squeeze The Most Out Of Everything, Whether It's Google Looking Up Things, So I Guess That Tends To Make Us A Little Lazy About Reading Books And Doing Things The Hard Way To Understand How Those Things Work.

Kids, Help Your Parents If They Don't Know How To Use A Smartphone.

The Leader Of An Earth Organization Who Makes A Commitment To History - Of Humans Living On Earth, To Begin Permanent Settlement/occupation Of Not The Moon, But Of Another Planet - This Leader Will Have A Legacy For History That Will Supersede Columbus, Genghis Khan Or Almost Any Recognized Leader.

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All The Chinese Have To Do Is Fly Around The Moon And Back, And They'll Appear To Have Won The Return To The Moon With Humans. They Could Put One Person On The Surface Of The Moon For One Day And He'd Be A National Hero.

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Mars Is The Symbolic And Totally Stimulating Next Objective That Could So Dominate The Next Century's Exploration Efforts. From Mars, The Resources Of All The Asteroids Will Become Readily Available.

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The Final Frontier May Be Human Relationships, One Person To Another.

Human Rights Problems Will Always Exist For Years To Come, But Maybe They'll Lessen Somewhat.

American Greatness Was Elevated Significantly After Sputnik.

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The Universe Is The Way It Is. It's Not Going To Be Changed By Supplications.

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Weve Got To Go [back To The Moon]. But We Dont Want To Stay Too Long. ... The Ultimate Goal Is Mars.

There Are Always Door Openings. And Gradually, It Accumulates. The Opportunities Open Up In Front Of You.

Sending A Couple Of Guys To The Moon And Bringing Them Back Safely? That's A Stunt! That's Not Historic.

I Don't Believe Any Pair Of People Had Been More Removed Physically From The Rest Of The World Than We Were.

I Was Motivated To Improve The U.s. Strategy Of Going Back To The Moon In 1985. That's A Long Time Ago. Going Back To The Moon Would Be A Great Achievement For Tourism Adventure Flights.

As Someone Who Flew Two Space Capsules And Twice Landed In The Ocean, I Can Attest From Personal Experience How Much Logistics Work Is Needed To Get You Home.

Knowledge Of The Past And An Optimistic View Of The Present Give You Great Opportunities.

The Purpose Of Going To Mars Is For Humans To First Begin To Occupy, Permanently, Another Planet In The Solar System. The Astronauts Or Pilgrims, Whatever You Might Call Them, Are Going To Be Very Historically Unique Human Beings.

I Think Humans Will Reach Mars, And I Would Like To See It Happen In My Lifetime.

Ray Bradbury Is One Who Is Contributing To The Understanding Of The Imagination And The Curiosity Of The Human Race.

I Would Rather People Understand That There Is A Very, Very Fortunate American Who Was Given The Opportunity, And Was In The Right Place At The Right Time To Have The Moment Of A Lifetime. My Mother Was Born - Her Name Was Marianne Moon. And She Was Born In 1903, The Year That The Wright Brothers First Flew.

Retain The Vision For Space Exploration. If We Turn Our Backs On The Vision Again, We're Going To Have To Live In A Secondary Position In Human Space Flight For The Rest Of The Century.

I Didn't Start Skiing Until I Was 50. My Wife Lois Taught Me How To Ski. I'm Proficiently Conservative.

There's No Doubt Who Was A Leader In Space After The Apollo Program. Nobody Came Close To Us. And Our Education System, In Science, Technology, Engineering And Math, Was At The Top Of The World. It's No Longer There. We're Descending Rather Rapidly.

Mars Has Been Flown By, Orbited, Smacked Into, Radar Examined, And Rocketed Onto, As Well As Bounced Upon, Rolled Over, Shoveled, Drilled Into, Baked And Even Blasted. Still To Come: Mars Being Stepped On.

In My Mind, Public Space Travel Will Precede Efforts Toward Exploration -- Be It Returning To The Moon, Going To Mars, Visiting Asteroids, Or Whatever Seems Appropriate. We've Got Millions And Millions Of People Who Want To Go Into Space, Who Are Willing To Pay. When You Figure In The Payload Potential Of Customers, Everything Changes.

Astronauts Working For The Government Will Always Need To Be Either Pilots Or Mission Specialists. Those Who Want To Be Pilots Should Have Military Experience - Ideally, A Test Pilot Background.

If We Go Back To The Moon, We're Guaranteed Second, Maybe Third Place Because While We Are Spending All That Money, Russia Has Its Eye On Mars. Landing People On The Moon Will Be Terribly Consuming Of Resources We Don't Have. It Sounds Great - 'let's Go Back. This Time We're Going To Stay.' I Don't Know Why You Would Want To Stay On The Moon.

I Think The American Dream Used To Be Achieving One's Goals In Your Field Of Choice-and From That All Other Things Would Follow. Now, I Think The Dream Has Morphed Into The Pursuit Of Money: Accumulate Enough Of It, And The Rest Will Follow. We've Become More Materialistic. For Balance, I Think We Need To Get Back To Idealism And Patriotism, But Also Be Realistic With Our Monetary Goals.

I Was Given Permission To Serve Myself Communion, With Wine And A Wafer, On The Surface On The Moon. But I Was Advised Not To Say Anything About It At The Time. Someone Had Strongly Objected To The Apollo 8 Crew Reading From The Bible. We Didn't Want To Get Into Any Further Trouble With The Religious Critics.

Dwelling On An Engine Failure For A Pilot As He Rolls Down The Runway Is Not What He Should Be Thinking About - It's Obtaining A Smooth Liftoff! But In The Back Of His Mind, He Knows Exactly What To Do (or Pretty Much) And In Many Cases, If He's Alone In The Fighter Aircraft, He Has To Leave That Aircraft In An Ejection Seat In A Big Hurry!

My Expertise Is The Space Program And What It Should Be In The Future Based On My Experience Of Looking At The Transitions That We've Made Between Pre-sputnik Days And Getting To The Moon.

There Were About Six Years When There Was Not One American Who Went Into Space. We Shouldn't Do That Again.

Bravery Comes Along As A Gradual Accumulation Of Discipline.

You Are Not Going To Change The Minds Of People Who Are Looking For Attention.

From The Distance Of The Moon, Earth Was Four Times The Size Of A Full Moon Seen From Earth. It Was A Brilliant Jewel In The Black Velvet Sky.

In Space, You Don't Get That Much Noise. Noise Doesn't Propagate In A Vacuum.

Everyone Who's Been In Space Would, I'm Sure, Welcome The Opportunity For A Return To The Exhilarating Experiences There.

It's Time To Open The Space Frontier To Citizen Explorers.

I Remember It Was Hard To Believe That I Was Taking A Step Onto The Lunar Surface.

This Is The Lm Pilot. I'd Like To Take This Opportunity To Ask Every Person Listening In, Whoever And Wherever They May Be, To Pause For A Moment And Contemplate The Events Of The Past Few Hours And To Give Thanks In His Or Her Own Way.

I Think The People Who Experienced The Apollo Missions Came Away From That Experience Wondering To Themselves, 'when Can We Get A Chance To Experience Spaceflight?' I've Heard That Many, Many Times: That People Got Into A New Career Field Hoping That They Would Be Able To Experience Spaceflight.

History Will Remember The Inhabitants Of This Century As The People Who Went From Kitty Hawk To The Moon In 66 Years, Only To Languish For The Next 30 In Low Earth Orbit. At The Core Of The Risk-free Society Is A Self-indulgent Failure Of Nerve.

Instead Of Planning The Retirement Of The Space Shuttle Program, America Should Be Preparing The Shuttles For Their Next Step In Space: Evolving, Not Shutting Them Down And Laying Off Thousands Of People.

I Was Lucky Enough To Have Been Born On This Planet Earth, In This Admirable Country Of The United States Of America.

Neil Armstrong Was The First Man To Walk On The Moon. I Am The First Man To Piss His Pants On The Moon.

I'm Convinced That Sending People To Mars Is So Expensive That If You Go Once And Bring The People Back And Then Go Again And Bring The People Back, We're Eventually Going To Run Out Of Money. But What If We Send People The First Time And They Don't Come Back? What If They Stay There?

Being First Outside The Spacecraft Would Bring Much More Responsibility, And I Really Wasn't Looking For That.

Save The Taxpayer's Money By Canceling The Ares 1 And V.

You Need Propellants To Accelerate Toward Mars, Then To Decelerate At Mars, Again To Re-accelerate From Mars To Earth, And Finally To Decelerate Back At Earth. Accordingly, The Mass Of These Required Propellants, In Short, Drives Our Need For Innovative Launch Vehicles.

We're Number One On The Runway.

Does It Make Sense For The U.s. To Expend Hundreds Of Billions Of Dollars To Mount A New Apollo-style Program To Return To The Moon? Or Have We Blazed That Trail? Shouldn't We Help Other Nations Achieve This Goal With Their Own Resources But With Our Help?

My Own American Dream Was To Serve My Country As Best I Could And Make A Difference In America - And In The World.

Space Architectures Capable Of Supporting A Permanent Human Presence On Mars Are Extraordinarily Complex, With Many Different Interdependent Systems.

The Way I See It, What Is Going To Come Out Of The Moon Activities Is A Respect For U.s. Leadership.

Don't Waste Your Time On Beaming People Up Or Down. Instead, Consider Gravity Waves As Advanced Physics Of The Universe That Could Be Used To Travel Interstellar Distances.

Anything We Can Do In The Near Future That Begins To Stimulate The Interest Of People - Seeing Somebody Down The Street Have An Opportunity To Go Into Space - Buoys Up The Whole Neighborhood.

Is The Destiny Of The Human Species To Sit Back And Play With Our Mouse And Computer And Imagine, Fantasize?

On Apollo 11 In Route To The Moon, I Observed A Light Out The Window That Appeared To Be Moving Alongside Us. It Was Either The Rocket We Had Separated From, Or The 4 Panels That Moved Away When We Extracted The Lander From The Rocket And We Were Nose To Nose With The Two Spacecraft. So In The Close Vicinity, Moving Away, Were 4 Panels. And I Feel Absolutely Convinced That We Were Looking At The Sun Reflected Off Of One Of These Panels.

The Big Companies Are The Private Industry. But They're Faced With A Short-term Need To Show A Profit In Short-term.

A Family Needs To Work As A Team, Supporting Each Other's Individual Aims And Aspirations.

My Sister Called Me "buzzard" When I Was A Baby - She Couldn't Say "brother" So I've Been Buzz My Whole Life.

Once You've Been First, It Cannot Be Done Again. Not By You, Not By Anyone Else.

Monumental Achievements By Humanity Should Be Done By Major Organizations As Much Together As Possible.

The Way I See It, Commercial Interests Should Manage A Lunar Base While Nasa Gets On With The Really Important Task Of Flying To Mars.

Climate Has Been Changing For Billions Of Years.

As We Begin To Have Landings On The Moon, We Can Alternate Those With Vertical Launch Of Similar Crew Modules On Similar Launch Vehicles For Vertical-launch Tourism In Space, If You Want To Call It That Adventure Travel.

There's A Tremendously Satisfying Freedom Associated With Weightlessness. It's Challenging In The Absence Of Traction Or Leverage, And It Requires Thoughtful Readjustment. I Found The Experience Of Weightlessness To Be One Of The Most Fun And Enjoyable, Challenging And Rewarding, Experiences Of Spaceflight. Returning To Earth Brings With It A Great Sense Of Heaviness, And A Need For Careful Movement. In Some Ways It's Not Too Different From Returning From A Rocking Ocean Ship.

The Moon I See Now Is The Same Moon I Saw Before. Except That Before, When I Looked At It, It Was In Anticipation Of What It Would Be Like When I Got There. That's Behind Me Now.

We Need The Next Generation To Be Motivated And To Push Technological Boundaries, To Seek Out New Innovations.

Most People Never Believed In The Real Possibility Of Going To The Moon, And Neither Did I Until I Was In My Twenties.

To Send Humans Back To The Moon Would Not Be Advancing. It Would Be More Than 50 Years After The First Moon Landing When We Got There, And We'd Probably Be Welcomed By The Chinese. But We Should Return To The Moon Without Astronauts And Build, With Robots, An International Lunar Base, So That We Know How To Build A Base On Mars Robotically.

Whenever I Gaze Up At The Moon, I Feel Like I'm On A Time Machine. I Am Back To That Precious Pinpoint Of Time, Standing On The Foreboding - Yet Beautiful - Sea Of Tranquility. I Could See Our Shining Blue Planet Earth Poised In The Darkness Of Space.

It Was Designed To Have An Impact On The Stalemate Over Mutually Assured Destruction With The Soviet Union. Us Reaching The Moon Convinced Gorbachev And Other Leaders That The Soviet Union Couldn't Compete With The U.s., So They Revised Their Agenda. But People Have Short Memories.

There's A Historical Milestone In The Fact That Our Apollo 11 Landing On The Moon Took Place A Mere 66 Years After The Wright Brothers' First Flight.

I Think The Public Needs To Be Reminded Just How Much Inspiration And Intention Was Given Throughout The World To Be Bold, To Send Human Beings To The Moon In The '60s And The '70s. It's Important Now To Bring Together The Nations That Weren't Able To Do It Then And Help Them Do It. We Need To Move Forward.

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 Could Have Human Intelligence In Orbit Around Mars, Building Things There.

Building Things

Because Of His Military Service, Dad Was Buried In Arlington National Cemetery.

Mars, We Know, Was Once Wet And Warm. Was It Home To Life? And What Can Living And Learning To Work On Its Rust-colored Surface Teach Us About The Future Of Our Own Planet, Earth? Answering Those Mysteries May Hold The Key To Our Future.

Every Couple Of Years, We Could Dispatch People From Earth To Mars.

As A Youngster, I Read Of Buck Rogers And Flash Gordon. As A Student, I Wrote English Reports On Science Fiction. And As A Fighter Pilot, I Observed The Selection Of The Mercury Astronauts. All This Was Fascinating, But I Really Didn't Think I Would Ever Be A Part Of It. It Was Only When My Good Friend Ed White Was Selected As A Gemini Astronaut That I Decided To Join Nasa As Part Of The Apollo Program.

I Have No Intention Of Selling Any More Of The Historical Apollo 11 Items In My Possession For The Remainder Of My Life. I Intend To Pass A Portion Of These Items On To My Children And To Loan The Most Important Items For Permanent Display In Suitable Museums Around The Country.

The Decision To Go To The Moon Is Now Appreciated And Associated With President Kennedy's Speech, But Somebody Else Had Told Him It Was A Good Idea. It Turned Out To Be A Good Commitment, But It Was A Unique Situation.

The Biggest Benefit Of Apollo Was The Inspiration It Gave To A Growing Generation To Get Into Science And Aerospace.

Mars Has A Bit Of Air Pressure; Maybe We Can Build Up That Atmosphere To Be A Bit More Accommodating To Humans.

As We Reflect Back Upon The Tragic Loss Of Challenger And Her Brave Crew Of Heroes Who Were Aboard That Fateful Day, I Am Reminded That They Truly Represented The Best Of Us, As They Climbed Aloft On A Plume Of Propellant Gasses, Reaching For The Stars, To Inspire Us Who Were Earthbound.

I'm Sure The Most Favorite Airplane In My Career Would Still Be The Sabre F86 Cleft Wing , Which Allowed Me To Be Credited With 2 Russian-built Mig-15 Destroyed During The Korean War. Where I Was In 1953.

I Participated With Great Honor In Becoming One Of The First To Land On The Moon, And Now I Am Devoting And Have Devoted Many Years Of My Life To Enabling Americans To Lead International Nations To Permanence On The Planet Mars.

I Shot Down Two Airplanes In Korea, So I Wasn't A Slouch.

When I Am Getting Ready To Cross A Street, I Look Both Ways Before Crossing. My Bones, My Muscles, Are Not What They Used To Be, So I Am Careful When I Go Up And Down Stairs, Because I've Heard Stories Of Older People Falling And Having Very Disabling Injuries. I Have Enough Things That Begin To Go A Little Bit Wrong As I Get A Little Bit Older.

Exploration Is Wired Into Our Brains. If We Can See The Horizon, We Want To Know What's Beyond.

I Think It's Inevitable That There Will Be Earthlings Establishing A Presence On Mars. And I Would Say That It Would Certainly Take Place By 2050 Or Shortly Thereafter.

What Are You Going To Do With Astronauts Who First Reach The Surface Of Mars And Then Turn Around And Rocket Back Home-ward? What Are They Going To Do, Write Their Memoirs? Would They Go Again? Having Them Repeat The Voyage, In My View, Is Dim-witted. Why Don't They Stay There On Mars?

Just As Mars - A Desert Planet - Gives Us Insights Into Global Climate Change On Earth, The Promise Awaits For Bringing Back To Life Portions Of The Red Planet Through The Application Of Earth Science To Its Similar Chemistry, Possibly Reawakening Its Life-bearing Potential.

Pascal Lee Is A True Pioneer Of Mars Exploration.

I Have No Doubt That Humans Will Go To Mars. And I Feel That America Has Led So Many Things In Space - We Have Invested So Much, And We Have A Lot To Gain - That America Could And Should Be The Nation That Should Lead The Settlement Of Mars.

The Society Of Life On Mars, Or The Challenge Of Making Mars More Livable, Will Have Significant Benefits On Our Attempts To Modify And Change In Some Ways The Environment Here On Earth.

I Grew Up In New Jersey And Never Went Up The Statue Of Liberty.

The First Footfalls On Mars Will Mark A Historic Milestone, An Enterprise That Requires Human Tenacity Matched With Technology To Anchor Ourselves On Another World.

Everyone Should Take Their Hats Off To Neil Armstrong. He Is A Humble Guy Who Doesn't Wave His Own Flag.

At 10,000 Feet, The 3 Parachutes Would Come Out, A Little Lower The Pressure Of The Atmosphere Outside Was Greater Than Inside, And We Could Smell The Salt Air And It Was Very Encouraging To Return To Earth.

For A Million Dollars, The Russians Would Take Two People, A Million Apiece, Around The Moon And Back. However, Stories, Videos That Come From The Space Station, And Other People, Are A Great Inspiration To Young People For An Exciting Career Field.

Before Deciding What To Do About National Space Policy, Obama Set Up An Outside Review Panel Of Space Experts, Headed Up By My Friend Norm Augustine, Former Head Of Lockheed Martin And A Former Government Official.

Look At What Silicon Valley Has Done - The Advance Of Computers.

It's Been One Of The Greatest Challenges That Ever Came Along In My Life; It Was One Of The More Difficult Things To Do.

Exploring Mars Is A Far Different Venture From Apollo Expeditions To The Moon; It Necessitates Leaving Our Home Planet On Lengthy Missions With A Constrained Return Capability.

We Really Didn't Devote A Lot Of Time To Investigating The Scariest Aspects Of Our Flight. It Was More Challenging And Productive To Concentrate On The Remedies, And Leave Things That Couldn't Be Solved To Happen Without Thinking About Them. There Is A Morbid Human Curiosity Associated With Tragic Death-producing Events. Though Naturally, This Needs To Be Kept In Perspective.

The G-forces Increased And I Wasn't Able To Continue To Hold The Camera Against The Window, So I Had To Lay It Back Against My Chest, But Still Continued To Photograph The Re-entry Until There Was No More Unusual Visual Effects Of The Energy In The Atmosphere. And It Was Very Comforting To Understand That The People In Houston, The Controllers, Had Very High Confidence That We Were On The Right Path.

Going To Mars Would Evolve Humankind Into A Two-planet Species.

Returning To The Moon With Nasa Astronauts Is Not The Best Usage Of Our Resources. Because Our Resources Should Be Directed To Outward, Beyond-the-moon, To Establishing Habitation And Laboratories On The Surface Of Mars That Can Be Built, Assembled, From The Close-by Moons Of Mars.

I Came To Dedicate My Life To Opening Space To The Average Person And Crafting Designs For New Spaceships That Could Take Us Far From Home. But Since Apollo Ended, Such Travels Were Only In Our Collective Memory.

If We Can Conquer Space, We Can Conquer Childhood Hunger.

I Think Both The Space Shuttle Program And The International Space Station Program Have Not Really Lived Up To Their Expectations.

History Gets Reinterpreted As Time Goes On. Many Times, The Participants Are Lost In The Retelling Of The Story.

Long-term, I See Robotics Prevailing On The Moon. . . . The Most Important Decision We'll Have To Make About Space Travel Is Whether To Commit To A Permanent Human Presence On Mars. Without It, We'll Never Be A True Space-faring People.

My First Biography Written In '73 Was Not 'journey To The Moon.' It Was 'return To Earth.' Because For Me, That Was The More Difficult Task - Disappointment.

I Really Hate To Be Put In The Position Of Trying To Justify Something, A Decision That Was Made. I'm A Military Guy: When A Decision Is Made, I Go Along With It, Whatever The Manufactured Controversy And Criticism.

We Must Still Think Of Ourselves As Pioneers To Understand The Importance Of Space.

I Failed Music When I Was A Teenager.

Mars Could Very Well Be A Staging Location For The Resources Of The Asteroid Belt. We Have To Learn How To Get A Payback Somewhere, But It's Beyond Mars That The Real Payoff Will Come From Minerals.

Going Back To The Moon Is Not Visionary In Restoring Space Leadership For America. Like Its Apollo Predecessor, It Will Prove To Be A Dead End Littered With Broken Spacecraft, Broken Dreams And Broken Policies.

As Time Goes By, I'm Increasingly Impressed By How Very Special And Timely It Was That We Got The Degree Of National Commitment Needed To Put People On The Moon. For The First Time, This Nation Was United In Trying To Develop An Interplanetary Capability. We've Been Trying To Repeat That Situation Ever Since.

This Has Been Far More Than Three Men On A Mission To The Moon; More Still Than The Efforts Of A Government And Industry Team; More, Even, Than The Efforts Of One Nation. We Feel This Stands As A Symbol Of The Insatiable Curiosity Of All Mankind To Explore The Unknown.

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