That's one small step for [a] man; one giant leap for mankind.

- Neil A. Armstrong, Commander Apollo 11, as he stepped off the LM 'Eagle' and onto the Moon in the Sea of Tranquility, 20 July 1969

Neil's partner on the Moon, Edwin E. "Buzz" Aldrin Jr., was next out the hatch.
Buzz said, "Be sure not to lock it on my way out."
On the surface, Neil says, "Isn't that something? Magnificent sight out here."
Buzz replies: "Magnificent desolation."

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

- Yuri Gagarin prior to flight, 1961

It [the rocket] will free man from his remaining chains, the chains of gravity which still tie him to this planet. It will open to him the gates of heaven.

- Wernher von Braun

God has no intention of setting a limit to the efforts of man to conquer space.

- Pope Pius XII

I looked and looked but I didn't see God.

- Yuri Gagarin, 14 April 1961

The Moon is the first milestone on the road to the stars.

- Arthur C. Clarke

Houston, Tranquillity Base here, the Eagle has landed.

- Neil Armstrong, transmitting from the Moon, 3:18 p.m. Houston time 20 July 1969. This call and the phrase 'Tranquillity Base' were unknown in advance to NASA.

It is the policy of the United States that activities in space should be devoted to peaceful purposes for the benefit of all mankind.

- P. L. 85-568 U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958

We have your satellite if you want it back send 20 billion in Martian money. No funny business or you will never see it again.

- Reportedly on a wall in a hall at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab, California, after losing contact with the Mars Polar Lander.

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.

- Captain James T. Kirk, start of every episode of the original TV series 'Star Trek'.

I'm interested in man's march into the unknown but to vomit in space is not my idea of a good time. Neither is a fiery crash with the vomit hovering over me.

- William Shatner, the actor who played Captain James T. Kirk, regards offer by Richard Branson to fly on Virgin Galactic, reported in Daily Mail newspaper, 6 September 2006.

The view of the Earth from the Moon fascinated me -- a small disk, 240,000 miles away. . . . Raging nationalistic interests, famines, wars, pestilence don't show from that distance.

- Frank Borman, Commander Apollo 8

Okay, Houston, we've had a problem here.

- John "Jack" Swigert, Jr., Apollo 13 command module pilot, 9:07 PM Central Time, 13 April 1970.

Say again please.

- Jack Lousma, Houston CapCom.

Err Houston, we've had a problem. [pause] We've had a main B bus under volt.

- James A "Jim" Lovell Jr., Apollo 13 commander.

The scenery was very beautiful. But I did not see the Great Wall.

- Yang Liwei, China's first astronaut (or 'yuhangyuan'), 15 October 2003.

Suddenly I saw a meteor go by underneath me.

- Jeff Hoffman

For NASA, space is still a priority.

- George W. Bush