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96 Space Quotes & Inspirational Quotes About The Universe

To infinity and beyond.

• Lauren Margolis

Written on Jan 11, 2021

A long time ago, mankind would look up at the stars and the moon and dream of being able to make it there; imagining that heaven must be beyond the veil of Earth’s atmosphere and finding ways to create the concept of space travel.

And when man finally did make it into space, it didn’t disappoint — as the many space quotes about the beauty of seeing the planet from orbit indicate!

When man first traveled to the moon in 1969, it may have been one giant leap, but it was only a small part of our long fascination with the beauty of outer space and the amazing vastness of everything waiting for us in the cosmos.

What we know about space is still so little, and this celestial concept has served as inspiration for both nightmares and dreams — in both fiction and reality.

RELATED: 25 Travel Quotes That Will Make You Want To Pack Your Bags & Go On An Adventure

To this day, the stars, the moon, other planets, and all the mysteries of space still give hope and excitement in everything from amazing cosmic interactions — like asteroids and eclipses — and even how a planet’s alignment might impact your daily horoscope .

Here are 96 of the best space quotes that will inspire you to never stop looking up at the stars.

As these motivational quotes about space prove, the stars are a great source of beauty, imagination, and inspiration, and will continue to be as humans extend further and further into our solar system.

Space Quotes From Astronauts

1. ”when i first looked back at the earth, standing on the moon, i cried.” — alan shepard.

2. “What everyone in the astronaut corps shares in common is not gender or ethnic background, but motivation, perseverance, and desire — the desire to participate in a voyage of discovery.” — Ellen Ochoa

3. “and i suddenly realized the molecules of my body, and the molecules of the spacecraft, the molecules in the body of my partners, were prototyped and manufactured in some ancient generation of stars. and that was an overwhelming sense of oneness, of connectedness. it wasn’t ‘them and us,’ it was, 'that’s me, that’s all of it, it’s one thing.' and it was accompanied by ecstasy, a sense of … epiphany.” — edgar mitchell, 4. “at this point, i thought 'we made it,' by which i meant 'we survived.' i also was acutely aware that my childhood dream of flying into space had just come true.” — ron garan, 5. “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.” — neil armstrong.

6. “I find it curious that I never heard any astronaut say that he wanted to go to the moon so he would be able to look back and see the Earth. We all wanted to see what the moon looked like close up. Yet, for most of us, the most memorable sight was not of the moon, but of our beautiful blue and white home, moving majestically around the sun, all alone and infinite black space.” — Alan Bean

7. “mystery creates wonder and wonder is the basis of man’s desire to understand.” — neil armstrong, 8. “the earth was small, light blue, and so touchingly alone, our home that must be defended like a holy relic. the earth was absolutely round. i believe i never knew what the word round meant until i saw earth from space.” — alexei leonov, 9. “weightlessness was wonderful, and i was surprised at how natural it felt.” — ron garan, 10. “the earth reminded us of a christmas tree ornament hanging in the blackness of space. as we got farther and farther away it diminished in size. finally, it shrank to the size of a marble, the most beautiful marble you can imagine. that beautiful, warm, living object looked so fragile, so delicate, that if you touched it with a finger it would crumble and fall apart." — james irwin.

11. “The stars don't look bigger, but they do look brighter." — Sally Ride

12. “suddenly, from behind the rim of the moon, in long, slow-motion moments of immense majesty, there emerges a sparkling blue and white jewel, a light, delicate sky-blue sphere laced with slowly swirling veils of white, rising gradually like a small pearl in a thick sea of black mystery. it takes more than a moment to fully realize this is earth... home." — edgar mitchell, 13. “in the van, we can see the rocket in the distance, lit up and shining, an obelisk. in reality, of course, it’s a 4.5-megaton bomb loaded with explosive fuel, which is why everyone else is driving away from it.” — chris hadfield.

14. “We are limited only by our imagination and our will to act.” — Ron Garan

15. "it's easy to sleep floating around — it's very comfortable. but you have to be careful that you don't float into somebody or something" — james irwin.

16. “I know the sky is not the limit because there are footprints on the moon — and I made some of them!” — Buzz Aldrin

17. “i think we’re going to the moon because it’s in the nature of the human being to face challenges. it’s by the nature of his deep inner soul. we’re required to do these things just as salmon swim upstream.” — neil armstrong, 18. "earth is a small town with many neighborhoods in a very big universe." — ron garan, 19. "space is for everybody. it's not just for a few people in science or math, or for a select group of astronauts. that's our new frontier out there, and it's everybody's business to know about space." — christa mcauliffe, 20. "i must admit, maybe i am a piece of history after all." — alan shepard.

21. "Every single astronaut who has come back from space comes back determined to do more to protect it." — Richard Branson

22. “i really believe that if the political leaders of the world could see their planet from a distance of, let’s say 100,000 miles, their outlook would be fundamentally changed. the all-important border would be invisible; that noisy argument suddenly silenced.” — michael collins, 23. “my view of our planet was a glimpse of divinity.” — edgar mitchell, 24. “you’ll never know how good you are until you try. dream the impossible and then go out and make it happen. i walked on the moon. what can’t you do” — gene cernan, 25. "any astronaut can tell you you've got to do everything you can to learn about your life support system and then do everything you can to take care of it." — sylvia earle.

26. "I don't know what you could say about a day in which you have seen four beautiful sunsets." — John Glenn

27. "if offered a seat on a rocket ship, don't ask what seat. just get on." — christa mcauliffe, 28. "i thought the attractions of being an astronaut were actually, not so much the moon, but flying in a completely new medium." — neil armstrong.

29. “Curiosity is the essence of our existence.” — Gene Cernan

30. "of course risk is part of spaceflight. we accept some of that to achieve greater goals in exploration and find out more about ourselves and the universe." — lisa nowak.

31. “I suppose the one quality in an astronaut more powerful than any other is curiosity. They have to get someplace nobody’s ever been.” — John Glenn

32. “gravity hurts.” — viktor alexandrov, 33. “the earth was small, light blue, and so touchingly alone, our home that must be defended like a holy relic.” — alexi leonov, 34. “you develop an instant global consciousness, a people orientation, an intense dissatisfaction with the state of the world, and a compulsion to do something about it. from out there on the moon, international politics look so petty.” — edgar mitchell.

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Inspirational Space Quotes

35. “be humble for you are made of earth. be noble for you are made of stars." — serbian proverb, 36. “somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.” — carl sagan, “37. there can be no center in infinity.” — lucretius, on the nature of the universe, 38. “the heart looks into space to be away from earth.” — richard jefferies, 39. “at night, when the sky is full of stars and the sea is still, you get the wonderful sensation that you are floating in space.” — natalie wood, 40. “that’s what it feels like when you touch me. like millions of tiny universes being born and then dying in the space between your fingers and my skin.” — iain thomas, 41. “remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet. try to make sense of what you see and wonder about what makes the universe exist. be curious. and however difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at. it matters that you don’t just give up.” — stephen hawking, 42. “for the wise man looks into space and he knows there is no limited dimension.” — zhuangzi, 43. “love is the one thing we’re capable of perceiving that transcends dimensions of time and space.” — interstellar, 44. “you never enjoy the world aright, ‘til the sea itself floweth in your veins, ‘til you are clothed with the heavens and crowned with the stars.” — thomas traherne, 45. “we are made of star stuff.” — carl sagan, 46. “all of time and space. everywhere and anywhere. every star that ever was. where do you want to start” — doctor who, 47. “the probability of success is difficult to estimate; but if we never search, the chance of success is zero.” — giuseppe cocconi, 48. “where we choose to seed ourselves on the spectrum of what’s possible is what will ultimately define the size of our lives.” — mary-jo dionne, 49. “not just beautiful, though — the stars are like the trees in the forest, alive and breathing. and they’re watching me.” — haruki murakami, 50. “in all our searching, the only thing we’ve found that makes the emptiness bearable is each other.” — carl sagan, 51. "look up at the stars and not down at your feet. try to make sense of what you see, and wonder about what makes the universe exist. be curious." — stephen hawking, 52. “never limit yourself because of others’ limited imagination; never limit others because of your own limited imagination.” — mae jemison, 53. “cosmology does, i think, affect the way that we perceive humanity’s role in nature. one thing we’ve learnt from astronomy is that the future lying ahead is more prolonged than the past. even our sun is less than halfway through its life.” — neil degrasse tyson, 54. “i promise you that the same stuff galaxies are made of, you are. the same energy that swings planets around stars makes electrons dance in your heart.” — kamal ravikant, live your truth, 55. “everybody has a little bit of the sun and moon in them.” — suzy kassem, rise up and salute the sun, 56. “the stars up there at night are closer than you think.” — doug dillon, 57. “because there is such a law as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing.” — stephen hawking.

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Quotes About The Universe & Mankind

58. "there is perhaps no better a demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world.” — carl sagan, 59. “i heard the universe as an oratorio sung by a master choir of stars, accompanied by the orchestra of the planets and the percussion of satellites and moons.” — r.j. anderson, ultraviolet, 60. “we are finite, in that we are a product and source of the infinite.” — ilyas kassam, 61. “once you can accept the universe as matter expanding into nothing that is something, wearing stripes with plaid comes easy.” — albert einstein, 62. “one of the basic rules of the universe is that nothing is perfect. perfection simply doesn’t exist… without imperfection, neither you nor i would exist.” — stephen hawking, 63. "you cannot look up at the night sky on the planet earth and not wonder what it’s like to be up there amongst the stars. and i always look up at the moon and see it as the single most romantic place within the cosmos.” — tom hanks, 64. “the history of astronomy is a history of receding horizons.” — edwin hubble, 65. “do not look at stars as bright spots only. try to take in the vastness of the universe.” — maria mitchell, 66. “love one another, but make not a bond of love: let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.” — khalil gibran, the prophet, 67. “equipped with his five senses, man explored the universe around him and calls the adventure 'science.'” — edwin hubble, 68. “mankind is drawn to the heavens for the same reason we were once drawn into unknown lands and across the open sea. we choose to explore space because doing so improves our lives and lifts our national spirit. let us continue the journey.” — george w. bush, 69. “the universe is a pretty big place. if it’s just us, seems like an awful waste of space.” — carl sagan, 70. “when you look at the stars and the galaxy, you feel that you are not just from any particular piece of land, but from the solar system.” — kalpana chawla, 71. “two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity. and i’m not sure about the universe.” — albert einstein, 72. “i saw the world from the stars’ point of view, and it looked unbearably lonely.” — shaun david hutchinson, we are the ants, 73. “of course there are worlds. millions of them every star you see has world, and most of those you don’t see.” — isaac asimov, pebble in the sky, 74. “i look up at the night sky, and i know that, yes, we are part of the universe, we are in this universe, but perhaps more important than both of those facts is that the universe is in us. when i reflect on that fact, i look up — many people feel small because they’re small and the universe is big, but i feel big because my atoms came from those stars.” — neil degrasse tyson.

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Quotes About Space Travel & Exploration

75. “the universe is under no obligation to make sense to you.” — neil degrasse tyson, 76. “astronomers, like burglars and jazz musicians, operate best at night.” — miles kington, 77. “the exploration of space will go ahead, whether we join in it or not, and it is one of the great adventures of all time.” — john f. kennedy, 78. “man must rise above the earth — to the top of the atmosphere and beyond — for only thus will he fully understand the world in which he lives.” — socrates, 79. "i don't think the human race will survive the next thousand years unless we spread into space. there are too many accidents that can befall life on a single planet. but i'm an optimist. we will reach out to the stars." — stephen hawking.

80. “The cosmos is within us. … We are a way for the universe to know itself.” — Carl Sagan

81. “to confine our attention to terrestrial matters would be to limit the human spirit.” — stephen hawking, 82. “across the sea of space, the stars are other suns.” — carl sagan, 83. “the earth is the cradle of humanity — but mankind cannot stay in the cradle forever.” — konstantin tsiolkovsky, 84. “even today the most jaded city dweller can be unexpectedly moved upon encountering a clear night sky studded with thousands of twinkling stars. when it happens to me after all these years, it still takes my breath away.” — carl sagan, 85. "astronauts are like these mythic legends, but really, they are just regular people, people who wear chinos." — mary roach.

86. “Space is an inspirational concept that allows you to dream big.” — Peter Diamandis

87. “discover the force of the skies, o men: once recognized, it can be put to use.” — johannes keplar, 88. “all civilizations become either spacefaring or extinct.” — carl sagan, 89. “the time will come when man will know what’s going on in the other planets and perhaps be able to visit them.” — henry ford, 90. “astronomy compels the soul to look upward, and leads us from this world to another.” — plato, 91. “for me, it is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.” — carl sagan, 92. “it’s funny. when we were alive, we spent much of our time staring up at the cosmos and wondering what was out there. we were obsessed with the moon and whether we could one day visit it. the day we finally walked on it was celebrated worldwide as perhaps man’s greatest achievement. but it was while we were there, gathering rocks from the moon’s desolate landscape, that we looked up and caught a glimpse of just how incredible our own planet was. its singular, astonishing beauty.” — jon stewart, earth: a visitor’s guide to the human race, 93. "i think we are at the dawn of a new era in commercial space exploration." — elon musk, 94. “looking up into the night sky is looking into infinity—distance is incomprehensible and therefore meaningless.” — douglas adams, a hitch-hiker’s guide to the galaxy, 95. “stars, everywhere. so many stairs that i could not for the life of me understand how the sky could contain them all yet be so black.” — peter watts, blindsight, 96. “the universe is not a stagnant place where technology stands still and only the few govern its destiny. rather, it’s a multi-dimensional dynamic entity that interacts with all things, even the very smallest. and what part we each play in it and the effect we have on it is a matter of our own choice.” r.g. risch.

RELATED: 32 Quotes From Famous Explorers On How To Satisfy Your Wanderlust

Lauren Margolis is a writer who covers astrology, pop culture, and relationship topics.

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85 Inspiring Space Quotes for All Mankind

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These space quotes offer inspiration from the final frontier.

On July 20th, 1969, Apollo 11 landed on the moon. Astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins manned the Saturn V rocket, departing the Kennedy Space Center at 9:32 a.m EDT, and landing the moon module (the Eagle ) at 4:18 p.m EDT.

With more than half a billion people watching live on television, Neil Armstrong climbed down the ladder and proclaimed: “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.”

Aldrin joined him shortly afterwards, offering the people at home a simple but powerful description of the surface of the moon: “magnificent desolation.” The astronauts explored the lunar surface for two and a half hours, taking photos and collecting samples.

Before heading back to Earth, the crew left behind an American flag, a patch honoring the fallen crew of Apollo 1, and a plaque on one of the Eagle’s legs. It reads, “Here men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the moon. July 1969 A.D. We came in peace for all mankind.”

Their successful mission was the culmination of both big dreams and hard work, as the world responded to President John F. Kennedy’s challenge to America to “commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to Earth.” (May 25th, 1961).

2019 marks the 50th anniversary of the incredible moon landing . In honor of all those who dared to dream of seeing a world beyond this one, we’ve collected the very best quotes about space together in one place.

Page Contents

Quotes about Space Travel and Exploration

In 1961, when Kennedy challenged the United States to put a man on the moon and bring him home again, our fascination with space and space exploration was already evident.

The incredible leaps in engineering and technology that made the Apollo missions possible, as well as the courage of the men who went into space, were fueled by the desire to see and know more than ever before.

Today, we are still fascinated by space and the idea of space travel. Space continues to represent a new frontier for mankind, fascinating and scaring us in equal measure. We continue to push the boundaries of our knowledge, awaiting the day when travel into space is as open and accessible as air travel.

Those who came before us made certain that this country rode the first waves of the industrial revolutions, the first waves of modern invention, and the first wave of nuclear power, and this generation does not intend to founder in the backwash of the coming age of space. We mean to be a part of it–we mean to lead it. For the eyes of the world now look into space, to the moon and to the planets beyond, and we have vowed that we shall not see it governed by a hostile flag of conquest, but by a banner of freedom and peace. We have vowed that we shall not see space filled with weapons of mass destruction, but with instruments of knowledge and understanding. John F. Kennedy

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. Buzz Aldrin

The Earth is the cradle of humanity, but mankind cannot stay in the cradle forever. Konstantin Tsiolkovsky

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. John F. Kennedy

Space is for everybody. It’s not just for a few people in science or math, or for a select group of astronauts. That’s our new frontier out there, and it’s everybody’s business to know about space. Christa McAuliffe

Mankind is drawn to the heavens for the same reason we were once drawn into unknown lands and across the open sea. We choose to explore space because doing so improves our lives, and lifts our national spirit. So let us continue the journey. George W. Bush

The exploration of space will go ahead, whether we join in it or not, and it is one of the great adventures of all time, and no nation which expects to be the leader of other nations can expect to stay behind in the race for space. John F. Kennedy

On one side are those who believe space travel is difficult work, but who go for it anyway. On the other are those who believe caring for a goldfish is, and who don’t go after much of anything. Where we choose to seed ourselves on the spectrum of what’s possible is what will ultimately define the size of our lives. Mary-Jo Dionne

Human exploration and colonization of Mars will keep us busy for hundreds, even thousands, of years. During that time, there will be advances in nanotechnology, space sailing, robotics, biomolecular engineering, and artificial intelligence. These advances are occurring even now, affecting our outlook about what it means to be human and engage in human activity. Those technologies will not merely allow us to stay home on Earth and Mars, but our minds will extend our presence throughout the universe so that we will not need or want to extend our bodies there — even if we could, which I think is doubtful. Louis Friedman

Quotes from Astronauts

It’s incredible to think that there are people who have spent time in Space, looking at the Earth, the stars, and the other planets, walking among us and living ordinary lives. These quotes reveal what motivates them to take flight, what our planet looks like from Space, and what space travel has taught them about life here on Earth.

Never limit yourself because of others’ limited imagination; never limit others because of your own limited imagination. Mae Jemison

I know the sky is not the limit because there are footprints on the Moon — and I made some of them! Buzz Aldrin

To some this may look like a sunset. But it’s a new dawn. Chris Hadfield

You develop an instant global consciousness, a people orientation, an intense dissatisfaction with the state of the world, and a compulsion to do something about it. From out there on the moon, international politics look so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, ‘Look at that, you son of a bitch.’ Edgar Mitchell

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. Neil Armstrong

Earth is a small town with many neighborhoods in a very big universe. Ron Garan

I looked and looked but I didn’t see God. Yuri Gagarin, speaking in 1961 about being the first human in space

I am also planning to leave a lot of things undone. Part of life’s mystery depends on future possibilities, and mystery is an elusive quality which evaporates when sampled frequently, to be followed by boredom. For example, catching various types of fish is on my list of good things to do, but I would be reluctant to rush into it, even if i had the time. I want no part of destroying fishing as a mysterious sport. Michael Collins

Gravity hurts. Viktor Alexandrov

In the van, we can see the rocket in the distance, lit up and shining, an obelisk. In reality, of course, it’s a 4.5-megaton bomb loaded with explosive fuel, which is why everyone else is driving away from it. Chris Hadfield

I find it curious that I never heard any astronaut say that he wanted to go to the Moon so he would be able to look back and see the Earth. We all wanted to see what the Moon looked like close up. Yet, for most of us, the most memorable sight was not of the Moon but of our beautiful blue and white home, moving majestically around the sun, all alone and infinite black space. Alan Bean

We are limited only by our imagination and our will to act. Ron Garan

I thought the attractions of being an astronaut were actually, not so much the moon, but flying in a completely new medium. Neil Armstrong

When I first looked back at the Earth, standing on the Moon, I cried. Alan Shepherd

Anyone who sits on top of the largest hydrogen-oxygen fueled system in the world, knowing they’re going to light the bottom, and doesn’t get a little worried, does not fully understand the situation. John Young

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

The Earth was small, light blue, and so touchingly alone, our home that must be defended like a holy relic. The Earth was absolutely round. I believe I never knew what the word round meant until I saw Earth from space. Alexi Leonov

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. Buzz Aldrin

The Earth reminded us of a Christmas tree ornament hanging in the blackness of space. As we got farther and farther away it diminished in size. Finally, it shrank to the size of a marble, the most beautiful marble you can imagine. That beautiful, warm, living object looked so fragile, so delicate, that if you touched it with a finger it would crumble and fall apart. James Irwin

Suddenly, from behind the rim of the moon, in long, slow-motion moments of immense majesty, there emerges a sparkling blue and white jewel, a light, delicate sky-blue sphere laced with slowly swirling veils of white, rising gradually like a small pearl in a thick sea of black mystery. It takes more than a moment to fully realize this is Earth… home. Edgar Mitchell

What everyone in the astronaut corps shares in common is not gender or ethnic background, but motivation, perseverance , and desire — the desire to participate in a voyage of discovery. Ellen Ochoa

To become an astronaut is not a question of being the best at something or things coming easy to you, but it’s being a person that can work with others and not give up . And, for me, that was part of it too. Michael J. Massimino

It’s easy to sleep floating around — it’s very comfortable. But you have to be careful that you don’t float into somebody or something! James Irwin

Any astronaut can tell you you’ve got to do everything you can to learn about your life support system and then do everything you can to take care of it. Sylvia Earle

Astronauts are inherently insane. And really noble. Andy Weir

I don’t know what you could say about a day in which you have seen four beautiful sunsets. John Glenn

Of course risk is part of spaceflight. We accept some of that to achieve greater goals in exploration and find out more about ourselves and the universe. Lisa Nowak

Space Quotes from Astrophysicists

From the observations of a heliocentric solar system by Galileo Galilei in the early 17th century, to Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, and Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time , space is the question that has intrigued some of the greatest minds in every generation.

The best and brightest of those who study space have disseminated their knowledge in ways that have been approachable to anyone who wants to find out more about the universe. They have brought together the “big questions” about science, the way the universe works, the role of our solar system, and our place within it. These are some of their best and most intriguing quotes!

One of the basic rules of the universe is that nothing is perfect. Perfection simply doesn’t exist…..Without imperfection, neither you nor I would exist. Stephen Hawking

I don’t think the human race will survive the next 1,000 years, unless we spread into space. There are too many accidents that can befall life on a single planet. But I’m an optimist . We will reach out to the stars. Stephen Hawking

Remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see and wonder about what makes the Universe exist. Be curious . And however difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at. It matters that you don’t just give up. Stephen Hawking

When forced to summarize the general theory of relativity in one sentence: Time and space and gravitation have no separate existence from matter. Albert Einstein

In the context of general relativity, space almost is a substance. It can bend and twist and stretch, and probably the best way to think about space is to just kind of imagine a big piece of rubber that you can pull and twist and bend. Alan Guth

However we select from nature a complex [of phenomena] using the criterion of simplicity, in no case will its theoretical treatment turn out to be forever appropriate (sufficient)…. I do not doubt that the day will come when [general relativity], too, will have to yield to another one, for reasons which at present we do not yet surmise. I believe that this process of deepening theory has no limits. Albert Einstein

Most of what Einstein said and did has no direct impact on what anybody reads in the Bible. Special relativity, his work in quantum mechanics, nobody even knows or cares. Where Einstein really affects the Bible is the fact that general relativity is the organizing principle for the Big Bang. Neil deGrasse Tyson

For every one billion particles of antimatter there were one billion and one particles of matter. And when the mutual annihilation was complete, one billionth remained – and that’s our present universe. Albert Einstein

Einstein was searching for String Theory. It not only reconciles General Relativity to Quantum Mechanics, but it reconciles Science and the Bible as well. Roy H. Williams

For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring. Carl Sagan

I speak now not as a planetary scientist but as someone who has colleagues who are planetary scientists and this is what they told me. Who doesn’t want to go to Europa? The problem is the technology to enable that is not yet available. And so if you direct monies to go to Europa prematurely and you find out that it fails, for whatever reason, it would not have been an effective investment of your money. So you say, “Well, we can try to go to Europa, but it might fail, or maybe the technology won’t come for yet another decade or we know how to get to Mars. We know how to do air bags and drop rovers and those sort of things, so let’s do that.” So we’re prioritizing not so much the science but we’re prioritizing what’s doable. Neil deGrasse Tyson

By denying scientific principles, one may maintain any paradox. Galileo Galilei

In my studies of astronomy and philosophy I hold this opinion about the universe, that the Sun remains fixed in the centre of the circle of heavenly bodies, without changing its place; and the Earth, turning upon itself, moves round the Sun. Galileo Galilei

The cosmos is within us. We are made of star-stuff. We are a way for the universe to know itself. Carl Sagan

To confine our attention to terrestrial matters would be to limit the human spirit. Stephen Hawking

Cosmology does, I think, affect the way that we perceive humanity’s role in nature. One thing we’ve learnt from astronomy is that the future lying ahead is more prolonged than the past. Even our sun is less than halfway through its life. Neil deGrasse Tyson

Who is more humble? The scientist who looks at the universe with an open mind and accepts whatever the universe has to teach us, or somebody who says everything in this book must be considered the literal truth and never mind the fallibility of all the human beings involved? Carl Sagan

His conflict with the Catholic Church arose because deep in his heart Galileo was a believer. There was for him no path of compromise, no way to have separate secular and theological cosmologies. If the Copernican system was true as he believed, what else could Galileo do but fight with every weapon he had in his arsenal of logic, rhetoric, scientific observation, mathematical theory, and cunning insight, to make his Church accept a new system of the universe? Bernard Cohen

My goal is simple. It is a complete understanding of the universe, why it is as it is and why it exists at all. Stephen Hawking

Once you can accept the universe as matter expanding into nothing that is something, wearing stripes with plaid comes easy. Albert Einstein

Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known. Carl Sagan

Space in Popular Culture

Our fascination with space, the universe, and our place in it, isn’t just limited to real-life knowledge and proven fact. It has crossed into writing, music, TV, and movies; offering up new perspectives on old space missions, pictures of new worlds, and visions of a future beyond our solar system.

From the novels of Ray Bradbury and Arthur C. Clarke, to the Doctor Who series, and David Bowie’s unforgettable Space Oddity , popular culture gives us a window on what we hope, and fear, to find beyond the stars.

I’m sure the universe is full of intelligent life. It’s just been too intelligent to come here. Arthur C. Clarke

It’s a fixer-upper of a planet but we could make it work.” Elon Musk on Inhabiting Mars

Space travels in my blood / There ain’t nothing I can do about it / Long journeys wear me out / But I know I can’t live without it, oh no The Only Ones, Another Girl Another Planet

Space or science fiction has become a dialect for our time. Doris Lessing

In the past, it was only in science fiction novels that you could read about ordinary people being able to go to space… But you laid the foundation for space tourism. Nursultan Nazarbayev

900 years of time and space and I’ve never met anyone who wasn’t important. Doctor Who

In science fiction, we dream. In order to colonize in space, to rebuild our cities, which are so far out of whack, to tackle any number of problems, we must imagine the future, including the new technologies that are required. Ray Bradbury

We cannot predict the new forces, powers, and discoveries that will be disclosed to us when we reach the other planets and set up new laboratories in space. They are as much beyond our vision today as fire or electricity would be beyond the imagination of a fish. Arthur C. Clarke

The function of science fiction is not always to predict the future, but sometimes to prevent it. Frank Herbert

Looking up into the night sky is looking into infinity – distance is incomprehensible and therefore meaningless. Douglas Adams, A Hitch-hikers Guide to the Galaxy

I’m floating in a most peculiar way / And the stars look very different today / For here Am I sitting in a tin can / Far above the world / Planet Earth is blue / And there’s nothing I can do. David Bowie, Space Oddity

We hope you’ve enjoyed this collection of Space Quotes! As we continue to search the stars, let’s hope that 50 years from now we have an achievement as monumental as the 1969 Moon Landing to celebrate. Stay inspired!

Natalie Seale

3 thoughts on “85 Inspiring Space Quotes for All Mankind”

Great article! These quotes surely can relate to anyone. “It’s a fixer-upper of a planet but we could make it work.” Elon musk. I like this quote because I am tech person and it resonates with how humans were able to innovate and create the planet we have today.

I believe that in the future man will be having two houses, one on earth and one in space, closely connected.

Space & it’s horizon is endless. We can not even imagine it’s limitations & boundaries.

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13 Things Tourists Should Know Before Traveling to Space, According to Astronauts

We asked the pros for their best tips on handling a first trip to space.

For most of human spaceflight history, those lucky enough to reach the stars were professional astronauts hired and trained by government agencies around the world. But since the early 2000s, when seven intrepid travelers paid millions to spend a few days aboard the International Space Station (ISS), space tourism has begun to take off. We're now on the cusp of a new era of space exploration, with commercial companies like Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin launching spacecraft capable of taking paying travelers beyond the Earth's surface.

We spoke with former NASA astronauts Leroy Chiao and Scott Parazynski to get their tips for first-time spaceflight participants. During his 15 years with NASA, Chiao participated in four missions — three aboard the space shuttle and one to the ISS, in which he served as commander. Parazynski worked at NASA for 17 years, flying five shuttle missions throughout his career. Read on to discover what they think aspiring space tourists need to know.

Your only job on the flight will be to kick back, relax, and enjoy the ride.

If you're taking a suborbital flight, which is what companies like Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin have offered, your ride will be a quick up-and-down to reach space, rather than a full orbit of the Earth. The short journey is relatively easy compared to what professional astronauts experience. For starters, you won't need to worry about flying your spacecraft. That's all up to the spaceflight provider. "You won't have any responsibility other than to enjoy the experience — and not kick anyone else in the head," says Parazynski. "Their obligations on the flight are pretty straightforward."

As such, the training programs for suborbital space tourist experiences are relatively minimal, perhaps only a few days in length at most. "The downside of not having a lot of training is that you don't have the confidence that comes from lots of training," says Parazynski. "Contrast that with the training I had on the space shuttle, where we trained for hundreds and hundreds of hours for launching in space. If something were to go awry, we would know exactly what to do and our hearts wouldn't skip a beat."

So, other than learning to place your complete trust in your spaceflight provider, Parazynski recommends talking to people who have flown before in order to ease any nervousness. Chiao agrees: "The best advice I can give on launch — and it's easy to say, harder to do — is to try to relax and enjoy the whole process," he says. "Pay attention during your training, talk to other people who've been there if you can. And actually, you might be surprised — it's quite calm!"

Make sure you’re physically and mentally fit.

"I think people should treat this as their Olympics or Super Bowl. This is a really big life experience, and though you don't need to be an Olympic athlete or a Super Bowl champion to fly in space, it helps to be fit," says Parazynski. After all, your body will be experiencing quite a range of new sensations during your spaceflight."

But it's not just about physical fitness — mental fitness is key, too. "I think through fitness comes mental acuity as well," says Parazynski. "The more you can be engaged in the experience, the more you'll remember of it — it'll be more impactful to you."

The G-forces experienced on launch and reentry are not as intense as you might expect.

If you've ever watched a livestream of an astronaut launch, caught any Hollywood flick about space travel, or ridden Mission: Space at Walt Disney World's Epcot theme park, you know that during launch, astronauts get crushed back into their seats. (And, actually, during reentry, too!) They're experiencing strong G-forces, or a sensation of weight felt during acceleration. It's the same feeling you get when you speed up quickly in a car or zoom through a loop or a sharp curve on a roller coaster, but during a rocket launch, those forces are stronger and more sustained. While the experience might seem a little terrifying, the pros say it's quite manageable.

"The G-forces aren't nearly as bad as they show in the movies," says Chiao. "If you're good enough to be given medical approval to go on a trip like this, you're not going to have any problems handling the G-forces." He also notes that you'll likely go through centrifugal runs during your training to prep for the sensation — you'll be strapped into a spinning machine that lets you experience strong G-forces, just like that spinning amusement park ride where you're pressed against the wall and the floor drops.

But to make launch and reentry as comfortable on your body as possible, you'll want to physically relax your muscles so you don't fight against the G-forces. "If you relax and let your body sink into the launch couch, you're going to tolerate it much better," says Chiao. "If you're rigid, that's where you might hurt yourself. And make sure your limbs and arms are inside of the couch."

To prep for weightlessness, you should book a zero-gravity flight.

While it takes quite a bit of effort (and time and money) to get into space to experience weightlessness, you can actually experience the sensation right here on Earth — or rather, just slightly above it. All you need to do is book a zero-gravity flight , where a plane flies in a series of parabolas (or arch-like shapes) during which passengers experience simulated weightlessness through free fall.

It's physically the same as skydiving or even riding a roller coaster, but in those two instances, your senses tell you you're actually falling. "When you're in a zero-G airplane, the airplane is falling at the same rate you are, so you're floating inside the airplane," says Chiao. "That's what it's like in a spacecraft when you get up into space and the engines cut off."

Through commercial companies like the Zero Gravity Corporation , anyone who can spare the cost of a ticket can experience weightlessness — and anyone who's planning on making a trip to space should definitely give it a go. "If they have the means, they should get on a zero-G flight before they go on a suborbital flight," says Parazynski. "It would take some of the mystery out of 'what am I going to feel like?' and 'how do I move?'"

Learning how to scuba dive is good weightlessness training, too.

While being underwater isn't exactly like floating in space, it's a pretty good way to practice moving around in a weightless environment. In fact, NASA even has a life-sized replica of the ISS set inside a giant pool, so astronauts can train for spacewalks underwater.

"Moving in weightlessness comes to you very quickly when you spend some time underwater," says Parazynski. "Get neutrally buoyant underwater and very gently try and move yourself along the ocean floor or bottom of your pool. It doesn't take a lot of force, but it does take a lot of thought."

Come up with a game plan for your few minutes in space.

On suborbital flights, you're only going to have a few minutes in weightlessness, so you should plan exactly how you want to spend your time up there. Figure out if you'd like to bring a memento like a family photo or college pennant for a fun picture. (U.S. Naval Academy graduates and former astronauts Wally Schirra and Tom Stafford famously put a "Beat Army" sign in the window of their Gemini VI spacecraft, so there's a long tradition of this.) Decide in advance if you want to attempt what spaceflight veterans call "stupid astronaut tricks," like flips or spins. But most importantly, budget time to look out the window.

"The most important thing I would tell future astronauts is to savor the view out the window," says Parazynski. "It's, for lack of a better term, a God's-eye view, and so few people have ever had a chance to see it. It's really a beautiful thing to be hovering in space and looking down at your planet."

Don’t worry about taking your own photos.

"As far as taking photographs, I don't know that I would recommend it," says Chiao. "You're not going to be very good at it, first of all, because it takes a little bit of practice to get used to zero-G. Don't waste that time taking photos. Get your memories, look out those windows, and enjoy the whole experience of being weightless." Plus, given the price tag of these spaceflights, we're pretty sure that your operator will provide you with photos and videos of your journey anyway.

When you get into zero gravity, you might feel a little dizzy.

The body functions a bit differently when you remove gravity from the equation for a sustained period of time, and side effects may include dizziness and nausea. "You're going to feel full-headed because there's no longer gravity pulling fluid down into your legs," says Chiao. "And so all that fluid comes up into your torso, and you can feel it right away. It feels kind of like you're standing on your head."

But the good news is, on suborbital flights you might be able to avoid the worst of it. "The adrenaline and excitement are going to make you do OK at first, and by the time you might start feeling bad, it's time to strap back in and come back down," says Chiao.

If you’re spending a few days in space, be prepared for some bumps and bruises.

On a suborbital flight, you won't have a ton of time in space, so you won't really have to worry about acclimating to zero gravity. However, some private spaceflight companies are looking to send their clients up into orbit for longer stays and there are even talks of a space hotel within Voyager Station . If you're going to spend a few days or even a few weeks up in space, you're probably going to bump your head more than once, no matter how much you've trained for the experience.

"It's really funny watching rookie astronauts the first day or two up on a mission," says Parazynski. "We called them the bull in a china shop. They push off with full force and they crack their skull or bang their knee."

You’re also going to make a mess.

Doing routine tasks like brushing your teeth (you can't just spit your toothpaste into a sink), clipping your fingernails (you don't want them floating off into your space station), and going to the bathroom (have you ever thought about how to use a toilet without gravity?) are all very different experiences in weightlessness. Inevitably, you might have a few mishaps early on in your trip.

"Just sitting down for a meal, you put your fork down, and it's gone in 30 seconds," says Parazynski. "You may find it two days later in the cabin air cleaner because that's where the air currents have taken it." Luckily, a lost fork is an easy mess to clean up — and the situation can be prevented by tethering it down. Other messes are a different story.

"As far as using the restroom, that's what you need to pay attention to during your training. The toilet is not particularly simple and you have to be careful," says Chiao. (In case you were wondering, space toilets use airflow to guide things where they're supposed to go.) "But be prepared to make some messes," says Chiao. "And everybody has to clean up their own mess."

If you’re going to do a spacewalk, the stakes are much higher for you and your crew.

If you want to zip around space with a jetpack like George Clooney in "Gravity," sorry, but chances are that's not going to happen any time soon. Most private astronauts will be safely tucked inside their craft for the duration of their flight.

Unlike suborbital flights, future orbital flights with a spacewalk will require extensive training, given that spacewalks are inherently more dangerous than simply riding in a vessel. "If you're careless with your tethers and you float off into the void, there's not a whole lot anyone can come do for you," says Parazynski. It's possible that a crewmate may be able to head out to rescue you, but then you're endangering their life as well. "It's paramount for a spacewalker to think not just about their own health and well-being and their experience, but also that of their crewmates," he says.

If you’re in a capsule, be prepared for a bumpy landing.

While the only way up to space is by rocket, there are two ways to come back down: via a winged vehicle, like the space shuttle or Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo, or a capsule, like Apollo, Soyuz, and Blue Origin's New Shepard. The experiences are quite different, as winged vehicles land like an airplane on a runway, whereas capsules descend beneath parachutes onto land or water. While both experience a range of G-forces during reentry, capsules have a bit of a rougher ride, particularly at the very end.

"When the parachute comes out, you can expect to get jostled around a fair amount, so that can be disorienting," says Chiao. "Then, whether you're hitting the water or the ground, you're gonna get a good bump. There are shock-absorbing mechanisms, of course, that make it not too big a deal. But on Soyuz, you smack the ground pretty darn hard. It was kind of surprising!"

It’ll be worth every penny.

Sure, it's going to cost a small fortune to go into space as a tourist — for now, that's somewhere in the ballpark of several hundred thousand dollars for a suborbital flight and millions of dollars for longer-duration orbital stays. But ask any astronaut, and they're sure to tell you it'll be worth the investment.

"What I would tell prospective astronauts is that it's going to change their lives forever," says Parazynski. "It's a perspective that can't be captured in emotion on film. Even in 3D IMAX, there's no way to capture the way it's going to make you feel, the connectedness you feel to planet Earth, and the awe you have when you look out into the universe."

Related Articles

1. Keep learning

2. exercise, 3. observe earth, 4. stay in touch, 5. stay clean, 6. get supplies, 7. take time for fun, 8. but wait, there's more, explore more.

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Imagine You're an Astronaut

Astronauts on the International Space Station, or ISS, often spend six to 12 months in space, orbiting Earth. It can be a little cramped staying inside the space station all that time. Astronauts still need to do their everyday living, such as working, eating, relaxing and exercising, but with fewer resources than they have on Earth.

Imagine you and your family are astronauts on the space station right now. You can only use the resources available to you. How would you adapt to the challenges and still keep doing important routines, like exercising, learning and making time for fun?

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See below for materials and step-by-step instructions. For more video tutorials and activities like this one, visit Learning Space .

Watch en Español : Seleccione subtítulos en Español bajo el ícono de configuración.

In this episode of Learning Space, you'll imagine you’re an astronaut orbiting the Earth on the International Space Station. How is life different and what will you do to adapt to your new environment? | Watch on YouTube

Astronauts are constantly learning. They do all the science experiments that need to happen on the space station. Most of the time, these experiments were designed by someone else, so astronauts need to learn about the science they are doing to follow the right steps and share the results. Astronauts also need to learn how to operate parts of the space station, such as the robotic arm .

How can you keep learning? Can you read a book? Do homework from your teacher? Have an astronaut read you a book ?

Learn more about life on the space station here .

About the Image: NASA Astronaut Peggy Whitson looks at a soybean-plant growth experiment on the International Space Station.

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Astronauts need to keep their muscles strong when they’re in space. One way they do this is by running on a treadmill. The treadmill has bungee cords that hold the astronauts down so they don’t float away.

You can keep your muscles strong, too. Do some jumping jacks, pushups, situps, or walk and jog in place so that you’ll be strong enough when you can go exploring.

What other exercises can you do indoors? Make an exercise plan for yourself and your fellow astronauts and monitor your progress. Plus, learn more about how and why astronauts exercise in space .

About the Image: Astronaut Koichi Wakata exercises on the space station's treadmill. Wakata is an astronaut with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA.

Astronauts love to take pictures and videos of Earth from the window of the space station. Seeing Earth in new ways gets them thinking about what makes our planet unique and special.

You can take pictures from your window, too. Think about what makes your street, neighborhood or city unique and take note of the patterns you see. How are the trees and plants changing from day to day? How do the shapes and colors of the clouds change? ( Identify what kinds of clouds they are and make a cloud mobile .) Do you see birds, squirrels or other creatures? What do you notice about them?

Here are some photos of Earth that were taken by astronauts .

About the Image: NASA astronaut Terry Virts takes a photograph from the window of the space station. Virts set the record for the most photos ever taken by an astronaut during a space mission.

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Astronauts keep in touch with their families by email and videoconference.

You can keep in touch with your family and friends by email, phone and video chat or by writing letters and drawing pictures. Make a list of the friends and relatives you want to stay in touch with. Call or write to a few people every day. They will be glad to know you are thinking about them.

About the Image: NASA astronaut Christina Koch shared this photo of herself relaxing on the space station after a busy work week.

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We all need to stay clean, no matter where we are. We wash our hands with warm water and soap. We brush our teeth. We take baths or showers.

Astronauts have special ways to keep clean while they’re in space. Everything floats on the space station – even water! – so astronauts in space can’t just hop in the shower or use a sink to wash their hands, so they need to get creative. Watch this video to see how astronauts wash their hair in space. Watch these videos to learn more about an astronaut’s morning routine.

About the Image: NASA astronaut Catherine (Cady) Coleman washes her hair while aboard the International Space Station.

Every few months, a spacecraft travels up to the space station to bring supplies from Earth that astronauts need. During these "resupply missions," astronauts get fresh fruit – a real treat! – new experiments to work on, clean clothes to wear, clean water to drink and food to eat until the next resupply mission comes, plus a few other treats from home.

If you could plan a resupply mission for your home, what would be the most important items to include?

About the Image: NASA astronaut Scott Kelly poses with fresh fruit brought to the space station during a resupply mission.

Relaxation and fun are important, whether you’re in space or on Earth. Astronauts have some time every day to relax and do whatever they enjoy most.

Learn more about some of the hobbies astronauts do in space. Learn how some of your favorite toys behave in space .

What do you like to do for fun? What activities are most relaxing for you?

About the Image: NASA astronaut Steve Swanson and German astronaut Alexander Gerst play soccer on the space station as they get ready to cheer for their teams in the 2014 World Cup.

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Here are some things you can do at home that astronauts on the space station can’t do:

• Open a window. This is definitely not recommended for astronauts, who have the vacuum of space outside their window!
• Breathe fresh air. Although the air on the space station is filtered, it’s the same air that’s been there for more than 20 years.
• Wash your clothes. Can you believe there’s no way to do laundry in space?
• Walk. Okay, floating is cool, but sometimes it’s nice to be able to walk around.

What else can you think of that you can do but astronauts in space can’t do?

About the Image: President Richard Nixon welcomes the Apollo 11 astronauts (from left), Neil A. Armstrong, Michael Collins and Edwin (Buzz) E. Aldrin, after their return from the Moon in 1969. The astronauts were required to spend 21 days in quarantine to be sure nothing hitched a ride with them from the Moon.

• Stay hydrated! Astronauts need to drink water when they’re in space. So do you. Drink lots of water. If you wonder how water acts differently on the space station than it does on Earth, watch this video by astronaut Chris Hadfield .
• Grow food. Astronauts are learning how to grow food in the microgravity of space. Astronauts on the space station conducted experiments to grow tomato seeds and basil seeds in space. Students grew seeds on Earth at the same time to compare how they grew in both environments. You can plant seeds and grow your own fruits and vegetables. Learn more about astronauts growing plants in space .
• If you have flour, water and salt, you can make your own play dough. You can sculpt your own planets, moons, rockets, satellites, astronauts and more. Here’s a scale model of the solar system you can make with play dough .
• If you have paper, you can learn how to do origami , the Japanese art of paper folding. Did you know that NASA has origami experts who help figure out how to fit large spacecraft into the tight spaces on rockets?
• If you have paper and a pencil, crayons, colored pencils, markers, pastels, chalk or other art supplies, you can draw planets and moons .
• If you have empty tissue boxes or other cardboard, paper towel tubes, scissors and glue, you can design your own Mars rover .
• If you have access to a computer, you can explore all of the planets in the solar system and the NASA spacecraft that study them with free NASA’s Eyes on the Solar System software .

The Meaning of Human Spaceflight: 20 Essays on Its 50th Anniversary

On the anniversary of cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin's historic trip around the Earth, NASA administrators, former astronauts, science museum curators and other thinkers from various fields reflect on 50 years of human spaceflight

Fifty years ago today, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, then just 27 years old, became the first human to journey into outer space. Gagarin, strapped inside of his Vostok spacecraft, completed an orbit of the Earth on April 12, 1961, instantly making himself a subject of international conversation. Before he died seven years later when a training jet crashed outside of Chkalovsky Air Base, Gagarin was awarded numerous medals and honors.

To commemorate 50 years of manned spaceflight, we reached out to NASA administrators, former astronauts, science museum leadership and many others who have written intelligently about space in the past. We've gathered their responses, ranging from the story of the Blue Marble Shot, that photograph seen above, to a moving celebration of colleagues from a former Space Shuttle pilot, on this page.

• SoCal Wanderer

A Star-Seeker's Guide to a Journey Into Outer Space

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You might not think of Southern California as being very interplanetary, but when it comes down to it, Houston and Cape Canaveral have nothing on us.

Besides the fact that we now have our very own Spaceport in Mojave, for a century we've been at the forefront of space exploration through our various observatories, satellite dishes, and probes that have gone off into the great beyond to try to find whatever truth is out there.

And our very own Caltech helped fund the research that has just led to the latest groundbreaking discovery of gravitational waves, proving yet another aspect of Einstein's Theory of Relativity. Einstein himself was even a visiting professor at Caltech in the early 1930s.

Whether or not you want to believe in extraterrestrial life, you can't deny that the scientific discoveries made in our own backyard have shaped the way we understand the expanding universe around us. And amazingly enough, with a little advance planning, you can visit many of those historic sites -- many of which feature hiking trails in addition to their telescopes and astrophysical paraphernalia. 

Learn more about space in Southern California

Higher Beauties: The Discovery of the Speed of Light in the San Gabriels

7 of the Best Places to Stargaze in San Diego County

SoCal and Astronomical History: The Big Bang Theory, the Demise of Pluto & More

1. jet propulsion laboratory.

If you're a hiker, you might have walked right past JPL along the Gabrielino Trail in the Upper Arroyo Seco, where it sprawls across the foothills of the Angeles National Forest. In conjunction with Caltech, this is where space-bound robotics (like the Mars Rover) are designed, built, tested, and remotely operated. If you go to their open house or to any of their regular free public tours, you get to see the In Situ Instrument Laboratory, where duplicate models of rovers are placed in laboratory-controlled environments that are nearly identical to space to make trial runs over rough terrain or out of space sand. JPL is an active space exploration facility run by NASA, but it's also a museum. Its exhibits include a 50% scale model of the Cassini, whose 2004 mission was to orbit Saturn, study its rings, and release a probe towards Saturn's largest moon, Titan. There's also a sample of a moon rock and of Aerogel, the lightest solid in existence. Even if you don't know a thing about unmanned space vehicles, it's cool to take a peek into their control room, the JPL Space Flight Operations Facility.

2. Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex

Thirty miles outside of Barstow in the Mojave Desert, you can take a journey from the desert to the stars at the Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex . Like JPL, Goldstone is also run by NASA and focuses on unmanned spacecraft, the "interplanetary robotic space missions" that tell us more about the world around our planet. Built on 52 square miles on Department of Defense land in the the Mojave Desert, it's far enough from nearby cities to remain uncluttered by competing transmissions. Any NASA spacecraft mission that's flown past the moon -- even to the edge of the solar system -- was probably aided by one of their giant radio satellites in some way. Their radar observations can include a variety of rovers, probes, and even asteroids. If there's something out there to be seen, or communicated with, Goldstone will be the first to know. However, Goldstone is primarily just collecting the data. Everything that comes in is sent to JPL and analyzed there. If anything seems amiss, JPL deals with it. And it's all extremely top secret, though they do welcome public tours with restricted photo opps.

All public tours at the Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex and the Goldstone Visitor Center in Barstow have been temporarily suspended until September 7th, 2021. Check for future updates on its website or Facebook page .

3. Mount Wilson Observatory

With all of these mountains bringing us to higher elevations in Southern California, it's no wonder our gazes turn upwards. At almost 6,000 feet above sea level, Mt. Wilson Observatory has a long history as a research facility, and is still operated by the Mount Wilson Institute under an agreement with the Carnegie Institution of Washington. It also hosts a number of public events and docent tours that lead you past their three solar towers that were built to study the magnetic pull of the sun. 

But the main attractions at Mount Wilson are the 60-inch telescope and the 100-inch "Hooker" telescope, the largest telescope in the world from 1917 to 1948 that was recently opened to the public for the first in nearly a century. You can hike along the Sturtevant Trail to Echo Rock and imagine Albert Einstein walking those same paths because, of course, he did, when he visited in 1931. It was a marvel that the 100-inch telescope was even built decades before the Angeles Crest Highway, when the only way to get to the top of Mount Wilson was via the Mount Wilson Toll Road. The inside of the 100-inch is presently more or less unchanged from the days of astronomer Edwin Powell Hubble, the "pioneer of distant stars" whose discoveries revealed the expansion of the universe. If you attend one of their public star parties at either telescope -- or join one of the star parties hosted by other private groups -- you see dwarf planets, globular clusters, nebulae, and extra-galactic worlds.

4. Palomar Observatory

Located on Palomar Mountain in East San Diego County, Palomar Observatory is most famous for housing the 200-inch Hale Telescope, the largest effective telescope until 1993, and a title it took over from Mt. Wilson's 100-inch "Hooker" telescope. George Ellery Hale's predecessors typically made their telescope mirrors out of fused quartz, but since mirror casters couldn't use it to manufacture a mirror that big, Hale approached Corning Glass Works in Upstate New York to make one out of a relatively new material at the time: Pyrex.

It took Corning a couple of tries, but they managed to succeed in casting a mirror with the necessary purity and smoothness, and far less distortion than the previous 100-inch telescope. Moving the behemoth across the country and up the mountain ended up becoming quite the spectacle. Although it's the most famous, the 200-inch telescope isn't the only one atop Mount Palomar. There are actually a total of three telescopes, which have been responsible not only for spotting the first brown dwarf star, but also the existence of dwarf planets, initiating the discussions which led to Pluto getting kicked out of the solar system. You can see the inside of the 200-inch during daytime tours, but there are currently no opportunities for the public to look through the telescope at night.

Due to the continuing pandemic, Palomar Observatory remains closed to the public for in-person visits. However, virtual talks hosted on Zoom are scheduled on Saturdays at 11 a.m. through November 2021. You can watch archived talks on Palomar's YouTube channel .

5. The Carnegie Observatories

Also founded by Hale is the Carnegie Observatories in Pasadena, a premiere center of astronomical research for over 100 years. Here, astronomers were able to not only measure the age of the universe, but also discover dark matter. And now that we know that the universe is expanding (thanks to the discoveries made at the 100-inch at Mt. Wilson), scientists at Carnegie Observatories are trying to calculate how fast. They share their findings with the public via regular lectures, and for more than a dozen years, they've opened their doors to the public for an annual open house event. There, you can ask astronomers your most pressing questions, look through a solar telescope, peruse the solar plate collection in the Hale Library, explore a working machine shop, and learn about their Giant Magellan Telescope Project in Chile. As you walk through the original 1912 office building, you might encounter someone developing a new instrument, someone studying the history of the early universe, and another discovering a new class of extra-galactic objects.

6. Griffith Observatory

Unlike Mt. Wilson or Mt. Palomar, which were primarily scientific research facilities, the observatory in Griffith Park has always been used for public education. Beyond the Observatory 's famous Art Deco exterior visible from many of the hiking trails around Griffith Park and various vantage points around Old Hollywoodland -- the interior houses more than just the planetarium shows. Intricate ceiling murals depict classical celestial mythology above an entrancing Foucault Pendulum, whose swaying back and forth remains constant while the Earth turns beneath it, causing the pendulum to knock down a series of pins every few minutes. The Tesla Coil's high voltage, lightning bolt-like display is demonstrated hourly, spectacularly, and loudly. And anytime there's an eclipse or other celestial event, the Observatory is the place to go. It may not be under the darkest of skies, but it brings together both professional and amateur astronomers that want to share the experience, even if you don't know which end of the telescope is up.

Griffith Observatory is open Fridays 12 noon to 10 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Per Los Angeles County COVID-19 restrictions, masks must be worn while inside the Observatory. For other visitor guidelines, click here .

Bonus: You can catch free star programs at community-oriented events hosted by UCLA at their small planetarium, Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy at the various park properties they manage, and Los Angeles Astronomical Society at both Griffith Park and Garvey Ranch in Monterey Park, where they'll demonstrate how to make your own telescope so you can explore space literally in your own backyard.

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It’s been 60 years since Yuri Gagarin became the first man in outer space

• By Daniel Ofman

Soviet cosmonaut Major Yuri Gagarin, first man to orbit the earth, is shown in his space suit. Photo undated.

Sixty years ago on Monday, the Earth sent its first human into outer space — Russia’s Yuri Gagarin.

On this day in 1961, Gagarin’s space capsule completed one orbit around Earth and returned home, marking a major milestone in the space race. As he took off, you could hear Gagarin’s muffled yet iconic “ Poehali, ” which means “Let’s go” in Russian.

Gagarin’s pioneering, single-orbit flight made him a hero in the Soviet Union and an international celebrity. After putting the world’s first satellite into orbit with the successful launch of Sputnik in October 1957, the Soviet space program rushed to secure its dominance over the United States by putting a man into space. Gagarin’s steely self-control was a key factor behind the success of his pioneering, 108-minute flight.

The World’s Marco Werman spoke to Stephen Walker, who has just published a book about Yuri Gagarin called “Beyond: The Astonishing Story of the First Human to Leave Our Planet and Journey into Space.”

Marco Werman: Stephen, tell us a little more about Yuri Gagarin. Before he became known as the first man in space, who was he?

Stephen Walker: Well, it’s a really interesting question. He was actually brought up in a little village just to the west of Moscow. And in 1941, Nazis invade Russia, and they swallow Gagarin’s village. And something very seminal happens to Gagarin, which I think determines, in some respects, the course of his life. At the age of 7, he is horrified to see that his little brother, Boris, age 5, is being hanged from an apple tree by an SS officer, and he tries to cut his brother down from this branch. But he’s very small. He can’t do it. So, he races back, yells at his mother, Anna, who comes racing out, rushes across and cuts down little Boris from this tree just in time. And that experience seared Gagarin for life. It gave him kind of an inner toughness and inner resilience, which is why he was able to sit effectively on top of the world’s biggest nuclear missile, waiting to be blasted into space.

Right. And as we know, the Americans were stunned when the space capsule orbited the Earth. So, I casually told the story of this day in 1961, earlier, basically the rocket launch; Gagarin went up, did an orbit and then came back down alive. But that doesn’t quite capture the intense drama of the day, does it?

Not at all. This rocket — it’s called an R-7 — is unbelievably dangerous. The chances of Yuri Gagarin getting back alive were less than 50-50. Almost everything you can think of goes wrong. No one knows what happens to a human being in space. And then, of course, the rocket itself is so dangerous because many of them have blown up. The Russians were desperate to get ahead of America, which means they took risks. So, it’s an incredibly dramatic tale of this 106 minutes that sort of changed the world.

What was the mission of the Soviet rocket and what did Gagarin himself think at the time about it?

Well, the mission was basically to see if a human being could survive in space and fly in orbit around the Earth. And there is this secret briefing given by Yuri Gagarin the day after his flight, and he tells the story of what happened 11 minutes after launch. Gagarin separated from the rest of his rocket, and he started very gently to spin. And then, he turned to the little porthole on his right and he saw the Earth. He had escaped the biosphere.

Incredible perspective. How was Gagarin received once he touched down some 90 minutes later?

Well, he actually landed hundreds of kilometers, of course. So, he ejects from this capsule at about 20,000 feet and the capsule lands separately. And Gagarin by parachute lands in a potato field. And there’s no one there except an old lady and her granddaughter who were picking potatoes. So, he goes up to them and they run away. They’re absolutely terrified. They see this, kind of, orange spacesuit. He manages to convince them he’s a comrade, he’s Soviet, he’s safe, and he says, “I need to get to a phone. Have you got any way of my getting to a phone?” So, they offer him the use of a horse. This guy’s been around the world at 18,000 miles an hour. And they’re talking about putting him on a horse to get to a telephone. It’s just crazy. Just before the horse arrives, some tractor drivers turn up, very curious. They’ve heard about him on the radio, on the kind of state radio, because it’s now being broadcast. And then within minutes, this jeep arrives with soldiers and they all start taking photographs. And there is a photograph of him, which is in my book, and it’s just wonderful. He’s just been around the whole planet and he’s landed in this potato field. And there’s this photograph. It’s quite extraordinary. 

I mean, it speaks of the high ambition and also the low reality of the Soviet Union during the Cold War. The USSR, as you said, Stephen, was determined to beat the US in getting a human into space. What was the reaction in the West when Yuri Gagarin went up and came home, and specifically in the United States?

Absolute shock. I mean, there is a press conference which President Kennedy, remember new in the job, gave that afternoon, and he looks completely and utterly shell shocked. He says he extends his congratulations to Khrushchev, who was the premier of the USSR at the time and also to the man who was involved. He can’t even say his name, but it is a real bad moment for him and for the American space program. You’re looking at somebody who is on the back foot. And we know this because two days later, Gagarin was celebrated in a, basically, parade that was millions of people, the biggest party really in Moscow’s history.

And at the very time that Gagarin was being celebrated and having the hero of the Soviet Union gold star medal pinned to his chest, we know that Kennedy was in the Cabinet Room at the White House with his advisers, and Kennedy is tapping his teeth with his pencil, which is always a sign of nervousness with him. And he says, “What can we do? What can we do to catch up? How do we leapfrog them?” And he comes up with a wonderful line. He says, “Even if the janitor in the White House has an answer, I want to hear that answer.” And this is when the moon idea really starts to take hold. And what I hope I have managed to do is to put readers right in the center, in the epicenter, of events, the little fly on the wall, that gives us an often very jaundiced view, but really fascinating inside story of what was really happening and how different that was from the presentation to the world of what was happening.

This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

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April 12, 2021

First in Space: New Yuri Gagarin Biography Shares Hidden Side of Cosmonaut

It’s been 60 years, to the day, since Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was the first human to travel to space in a tiny capsule attached to an R-7 ballistic missile, a powerful rocket originally designed to carry a three- to five-megaton nuclear warhead. In this new episode marking the 60th anniversary of this historic space flight—the first of its kind— Scientific American talks to Stephen Walker, an award-winning filmmaker, director and book author, about the daring launch that changed the course of human history and charted a map to the skies and beyond.

Walker discusses his new book  Beyond: The Astonishing Story of the First Human to Leave Our Planet and Journey into Space , out today, and how Gagarin’s journey—an enormous mission that was fraught with danger and planned in complete secrecy—happened on the heels of a cold war between the U.S. and the Soviet Union and sparked a relentless space race between a rising superpower and an ailing one, respectively.

Walker, whose films have won an Emmy and a BAFTA, revisits the complex politics and pioneering science of this era from a fresh perspective. He talks about his hunt for eyewitnesses, decades after the event; how he uncovered never-before-seen footage of the space mission; and, most importantly, how he still managed to put the human story at the heart of a tale at the intersection of political rivalry, cutting-edge technology, and humankind’s ambition to conquer space and explore new frontiers.

By Pakinam Amer

Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first human to journey into outer space.

Getty Images

Pakinam Amer: It was at 09.07 am Moscow time on April 12, 1961 that a new chapter of history was written. On that day, without much fanfare, Russia sent the first human to space and it happened in secrecy, with very few hints in advance.

Yuri Gagarin, 27-year-old Russian ex-fighter pilot and cosmonaut, was launched into space inside a tiny capsule on top of a ballistic missile, originally designed to carry a warhead. 

The spherical capsule was blasted into orbit, circling the Earth at a speed of about 300 miles per minute, 10 times faster than a rifle bullet.

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Accounts vary on exactly how long Gagarin spent circling our blue planet before he re-entered the atmosphere, hurtling towards Earth, gravity rapidly pulling him in.

Some say it was 108 [ one hundred and eight ] minutes. Stephen Walker, my guest today and the author of a new book on Gagarin’s historic feat and the world it happened in, puts at 106 [ one hundred and six ].

Give or take a few minutes, that space venture aboard Vostok 1 — orbiting the earth at a maximum altitude of roughly 200 miles and putting the first man in space — still set the record for space achievement.

It sparked a space race between the US and Russia that, 8 eight years later, put other men on the moon for that small step hailed as a giant leap.

It is said that Gagarin whistled a love song as his capsule prepared for launch

One man, five feet five, in an orange space suit, strapped into a seat inside a capsule attached to a modified R-7, the world’s first intercontinental ballistic missile. … 

… 106 minutes or 108, man’s first pilgrimage around the planet we call home

... a solitary journey that is still celebrated as monumental and game-changing 60 years on.

This is Pakinam Amer, and you’re listening to Science Talk, a Scientific American podcast. And today, my guest Stephen Walker and I will talk about a legendary astronaut and a super secret space mission that changed everything.

Stephen Walker: [I] came across a book that was written by a guy called [Vladimir] Suvorov who had kept a diary, a secret diary of the secret Soviet space program which he was filming from about 1959 right the way through into the 60s and it was fascinating because it was so secret that he wasn't even able to tell his wife what he was doing but he was away filming all this stuff and he says in his diary this felt like science fiction.

It was just so incredible what was happening in secret and I thought myself I want to find the footage because if I can find that footage which is apparently shot in color and on 35 millimeter I can appraise that footage and turn it into a theatrical feature film which gives you the inside image, the inside sight into this incredible first step to space to the beyond.”

That was Stephen Walker, British director and New York Times bestselling author of Shockwave: Countdown to Hiroshima. And this was his attempt to dust off decades-old footage showing months of preparing Vostok 1 to put a Soviet citizen into orbit before the Americans.

Stephen traveled to Russia, tracked down eye witnesses who worked at the top secret rocket site in the USSR, shot the interviews in high-definition and gathered some raw, never-before-seen insider material shot between 1959 and 61, that he describes as pristine.

But he couldn’t get access to the rest of the footage. What he had was great but wasn’t enough for a full feature film.

So instead, he wrote a book.

It’s called Beyond and it’s published by HarperCollins.

Pakinam Amer: So Stephen, you’re one of those people who actually wrote a book in lockdown.

Stephen Walker: It was incredibly exciting in a way but it was weird, because all this other stuff was going on outside. And I didn't see it. Really. Of course, I did see it. But when people talk about Corona for me at that point, I wasn't thinking about the Coronavirus, I was thinking about the corona spy satellite system that the Americans had in 1961, which I talk about in my book where they were spying on secret Soviet missile complexes. I mean, I was in a different world. I was literally in 1961. And I was also in 2020. It was a really weird experience>

Pakinam Amer: But you began weaving the yarn in 2012?

Stephen Walker: Yeah, I mean, I've done lots of other things since then. I did three trips to Russia. One in 2012. One in 2013. I think I actually had another in 2014 or 2015. The last one was actually a short trip to St. Petersburg, where I met this incredible couple and one of things is wonderful about the Soviet space program at that time, was that actually very unlike NASA, which seemed to have a real major problem about women being anywhere near NASA.

I mean, actually women were not even allowed in the launch blockhouses at Cape Canaveral in 1961. They were forbidden to get in them … There was one woman, a wonderful woman, I interviewed called Joanne Morgan, who was the only woman engineer of all of them [who was allowed] in the launch Center at Kennedy Space Center in 1969. For the moon landing, she's the only one woman and everybody else is a guy. And back in 61, she was telling me over crab cocktails in Cape Canaveral. She told me that you know, she was actually not even allowed to go into the launch of the launch blockhouse, she was forbidden to go in.

Whereas actually in the USSR, oddly enough, it wasn't like that. And I interviewed this couple called Vladimir and Khionia Kraskin, and they're in my book. And they were this wonderful husband and wife in their 80s. And they entertained me in this wonderful little Soviet-style flat in Saint Petersburg, and told me glorious stories about how they were both engineers, telemetry engineers, that have moved there with their child to this weird place in the middle of the Kazakh Steppe, you know, where this new rocket cosmodrome was being built.

And they actually were working right at the epicenter of the Soviet space program, and for that matter, the Soviet missile program, and these were their glory days. It was quite an incredible thing to sort of talk to them both about and they were there when Gagarin launched and with all of that stuff, they were there all the way through it. It was wonderful; it was so Russian, we ended up sitting and drinking vodka until four o'clock in the morning.

I interviewed them on camera, and we had this wonderful, it was quite glorious. This guy had actually out of chocolate wrappers from Ferrero Roche chocolates had constructed a two-meter-high replica of the R-7 rocket that took Yuri Gagarin into space and it was in his sitting room. It was Incredible. It was all made out of chocolate, you know, gold wrappers, it was beautiful.

And, and so I kind of fell in love with these people. And I also sort of felt, you know, I want to tell their stories because they just aren't being heard by anybody. It's all moon, moon, moon, lunar, lunar, lunar. And that's great. Don't get me wrong, it's really important. It's a landmark. It's all of that I get it. But this is an amazing story. And these are amazing stories that people don't know about, and they are really exciting, and really dramatic and really touching and really moving and really, you know, epoch changing, in my opinion.”

Pakinam Amer: Stephen, when I read your book, it almost felt like a novelization of that era. It's a very intricate and intimate account of the people who were involved in that space mission. A very rich account, not just of the orbit itself, but of the tensions reminiscent of the cold war between the US and the Sovient Union, then the space race. But yours is primarily a human story. What inspired you to write it, decades down the line?

Stephen Walker: It is a major philosophical leap for humankind, this is not just advanced Soviet v. America, it really isn't. And to think of it in those terms, is to miss the essential point. Because what I believe

is that the first human being in space is one of the most epoch call moments in all human history.

For essentially three and a half billion years since, or any life began on this planet, anything, okay? This man is the first to leave, he is the first human eye to look down on the biosphere from outside, he is the first--to use the words of Plato--he is the first to escape the cave that we are all in. He steps into the beyond; it is that very first step outside. Nobody had seen this before.

It is one of the things that when you actually put yourself back into that world at that time, and Gagarin very quickly became the most famous man on the planet. You understand why? Because what this is all pre-moon, none of that had happened is this guy was seeing something that no one else in all history whether a human or anything had ever seen. When he looked out in that porthole window, he saw the stars, he saw the earth. And he saw a sunrise in fast motion, and a sunset in fast motion. He saw the incredible fragility of the earth. He saw what we're all destroying, frankly, right now, he saw all of that. And he was the first to see it.

So for me, that is a philosophical psychological quarter, which will be emotional, it is somebody stepping out of the cave into the sunlight as it were to pursue the metaphor and blinking in the light and going, Oh, my God, what's this? What's this that's out here? What is this? He was the first to do it at incredible risk.

It happened because of the politics. It happened because of the race. It happened because of the iron curtain. We know all of those things are valid at all that but actually, in the end, the event, the achievement, better than that the moment is bigger than all of those things way, way, way bigger than all of those things, three and a half billion years. And something changes on April the 12th 1961, at you know, ten past nine in the morning, Moscow time. And that's this. And that's the story.

So for me, it's everything. That's the first thing that kind of animated me to write the book. And I felt that I even had a sign above my desk saying, “remember, Stephen, three and a half billion years, remember,” I kept thinking that when I started to get into the politics too much or got a bit lost in whatever details, as one always does, and pull back from it. What is this really about?

And the other thing that I thought was really important about this. And it animated my writing too. I'm not interested in writing history books that end up in library stacks for decades. I mean, I'm a filmmaker. I want to reach people. And what I tried to do in this story was tell people about people. What interests me most of all, I'm interested, obviously in the technical achievement and really interested in the politics. Of course I am. I couldn't write this book if I wasn't. But what I'm really, really interested in people.

Who was this guy? What was this rivalry like between him and this guy, Titov? He was [the Soviet] number two.

There's an incredible story there, which I kind of talked about, where you get these two men who are both competing to be the first human in space. They are best friends. They are next door neighbors. And they have a child each the same kind of age little infant child, but Titov's child Igor dies at the age of eight months, right in the middle of their Cosmonaut Training, and the Gagarin husband and wife with their own child about the same age, a little girl ...  they are incredible to him. They are and his wife, Tamara, they are locked in embrace, they are supportive, they are wonderful. And I know this because I interviewed Titov's wife in Moscow. And she told me all of this, it was quite incredible. She was in tears when she told me this stuff.

And yet, these two men with this love with this tragedy that they kind of shared and helped each other through living next door and on adjoining balconies and crossing over each other's balconies to spend time with each other and late nights talking and drinking vodka and all those sorts of things. They're also rivals for immortality, effectively. And we're not really talking about Titov today, we're talking about Yuri Gagarin. So he lost, he lost. And yet underlying that rivalry is love.

And to me, that becomes human that becomes rich and interesting. It's not just ‘Oh, who came first,’ it's actually a real, it's a relationship of brothers, with all the complexities that fraternal relationships like that would have, you know, the rivalry, the kind of male rivalry, but also the love and the connection in the background. So it's complicated, difficult, it doesn't fit easily into boxes, but a very, very human mix of emotions that drives forward. So characters, people who make the story, this pivotal moment in human history happen, is what really excites me.

Pakinam Amer: Stephen painted an interesting picture of the world where Gagarin’s extraordinary mission happened. How back then, the Soviet Union and the United States were head to head, taking colossal risks in the race to be first in space.

Before Gagarin’s mission, the Soviet Union had already blasted the first satellite in into space, Sputnik 1.

Only three weeks after Gagarin’s earth orbit, American astronaut Alan Shepard--part of the so-called Mercury-7--was launched into space aboard a rocket called Freedom 7.

Less than a year later, John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth, circling it three times in 1962.

But Gagarin’s leap into the unknown, being a first, was terrifying.

No one knew what would happen to a person once they’re launched into space. Would they go mad? Can their body withstand it?

Like Stephen aptly describes, there was no textbook for that mission … anywhere. So what exactly were the challenges …

Stephen Walker: The challenges are physiological and psychological, the physiological challenges, some of which had been kind of looked at and dealt with some of the animal flights they do, which I write about in the book with dogs in a Soviet Union and with monkeys, and then finally, obviously a chimpanzee called Ham in the United States. But what actually, they didn't know really was what a human physiology would do in that environment.

So what you're talking about are unbelievable, first of all, acceleration forces in a rocket. Nobody, let's just get this really clear. From the beginning. Nobody had sat on top of a nuclear missile, replacing the nuclear bomb, and then firing it upwards, nobody.

And this particular missile, the R-7, was the biggest missile in the world, it was much bigger than any missile the Americans had, it was powerful enough to fly from Kazakhstan, to New York with a thermonuclear weapon on top of it... It was astonishingly radically advanced for its time. And no human had sat on top of one with a million pounds of thrust and lit the fuse and see what happens.

So they didn't know. I mean, it could blow up straight there on the pad. It could be that the physiological experiences, the actual acceleration, or G-forces could be too much for a body to withstand. And once this rocket had actually got into orbit, and the capsules there, nobody knew what weightlessness would do to a human body.

There were real fears that a human wouldn't be able to breathe properly, even obviously, in an oxygenated atmosphere. The human being wouldn't be able to swallow, for example, that weightlessness would do really, really strange things to the heart, they wouldn't beat properly. You know, nobody knew because nobody experienced weightlessness of any kind for more than a few seconds in one of those aeroplanes that simulated weightlessness with his parabolas, they kept flying. But that was only for about 20 seconds. This is going to be much, much longer than that.

So they just didn't know. They were tremendous concerns about how he'd get down again, everybody knew that a capsule returning through the atmosphere would build up massive amounts of friction, the temperatures would reach 1500 degrees centigrade, even more, you know, would it burn away? Would whatever protection he had in the form of a heat shield, or in the design of the capsule itself? Would it work already burn up as he came down? You know, would that be a problem?

And then, beyond all of those problems, there was, as I said, the psychological problem. And the psychological problem basically boiled down to very simple sentence, or rather a very simple question, but with a very simple answer. And that was, would he go insane? Was he going mad in space, because the real fear, and it was a real fear at that time.

And there were, there was psychological textbooks that were written about something called space horror , was that the first human being divorced from the planet below divorce from life or life as we know it divorce for all of that sailing alone, and this is ultimate loneliness or isolation, in the vacuum of space in his little sphere, might go mad.

So they had to think about that, too. And what they thought about as I described in my book was a very Soviet response, they decided that flight will be completely automated. So the guy wouldn't have to do anything at all inside it, except essentially endure it, whatever “endure” actually meant. But they then decided at the last moment, that if actually, something did go wrong, and he needed to take manual control, then how are they going to let him have manual control.

And they came up with this extraordinary solution, which is just utterly mad, where they basically had a three digit code, which you press on, like, the kind of thing you have in a hotel safe on the side of his capsule, and you press these three numbers, which I think will one to five; it's in the book, and that would unlock the manual controls. But then they worried that he might go so crazy that he might just do that anyway, take control, and God knows what he'll do, you know, destroy himself, defect to America, in his spacecraft.

These were proper discussions that took place, literally a few days before he flew. And in the end, what they decided to do was to put the code in an envelope, and seal the envelope, and glue it somewhere in the lining of the inside of his spacecraft. The idea being somehow-- this is crazy logic, it's not even logic-- that if he was able to find it, open it, read the code and press the correct numbers, then he won't be insane. And that was seriously discussed in a state commission of the top politicians, KGB people and space engineers, one week before Yuri Gagarin flew in space.

That's, that's what they dealt with, because they were they didn't know space, horror, insanity. So you're, again, it comes back to my saying at the very beginning, everything here is a first everything is an unknown, nobody's done it before. Nobody. And what increases that feeling of isolation that would have made the possibility of insanity a real one. Why they were so frightened was because they didn't have reliable radio communications with the ground.

They didn't have what the [American] Mercury astronauts would have, which was a chain of stations basically, in circling the globe, where they would always have somebody to talk to, and we're very used to the moon landings and there's all those, you know, communications with beeps on the end, and even with Apollo 13, the one that went wrong, they're always communicating with Mission Control in Houston. But for Gagarin's flight, I would say a substantial part of his flight.

I'm not sure if you'd actually say the majority, but a substantial part of his flight hidden nobody's talked to. He had nobody to talk to, except a microphone with a tape recorder that was installed inside his cabin. And as I say, in the book, it turns out that whoever installed the tape in the tape recorder didn't put enough tape in. So he ran out halfway around the world. And he sat there and made probably one of the few independent decisions that he made in the cabinet, in that Vostok spacecraft, which was to rewind the tape to the beginning, and then record over everything he just said. This is the first mind in space and that's what happened.

You can't really make this stuff up.

Although the radio communication with the first human who stepped beyond our planet involved few words, what we know for instance was that Yuri’s first spoken words were, “The Earth is blue, how wonderful,” Stephen includes part of the transcript of the tape that Yuri recorded during orbit aboard the capsule, as he looked out of the porthole of his capsule.

“The Earth was moving to the left, then upwards, then to the right, and downwards … I could see the horizon, the stars, the Sky,” Gagarin said. “I could see the very beautiful horizon, I could see the curvature of the Earth.”

Pakinam Amer: You’ve heard from Stephen Walker, filmmaker and author of Beyond: The Astonishing Story of the First Human to Leave Our Planet and Journey into Space. His book is on sale today. You can get it through HarperCollins, its publisher, or wherever you buy your books. For more information visit www.stephenwalkerbeyond.com

That was Science Talk, and this is your host Pakinam Amer. Thank you for listening.

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Yuri Gagarin, Soviet cosmonaut who became the first man to travel into space. (Image Credit: NASA)

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The Nine Planets

How to get into Outer Space

Sending man-made objects into space is a very technically demanding and expensive process.

To get into a close orbit around the Earth, an object must be travelling at a speed of about 8 km/s. We must also raise it above the Earth’s surface by at least 100km. The amount of energy required to do this is enormous. Bear in mind also that energy is required to accelerate and lift the fuel for the journey also. To send 1 kg into space costs more than 1 million dollars.

(If you want to calculate how long it takes to get to stars, planets, and galaxies, try our space travel calculator)

If we want a craft to travel a very large distance, we have a choice to make. It can travel there very quickly, which would need a lot of fuel, or it could travel there very slowly. The problem with this is the time it would take to get there. If the craft was manned, then all the things needed to keep people alive for a long time would have to be brought with you adding to the weight.

Staying Alive

Space is the most hostile environment imaginable. It is incredibly cold. One must be protected from this and huge amounts of dangerous radiation from the Sun. One could shield astronauts living spaces with the lead, but this would greatly increase the mass of the spacecraft.

There is no air to breathe so one must bring all the oxygen that one would need with you along with food and water. One must also “scrub” the air of the carbon dioxide that one breathes out or else it will soon reach poisonous levels. If a space capsule or suit was damaged, then the astronaut would die very quickly due to the lack of external air pressure. Blood vessels and cells would burst resulting in an incredibly painful death.

Imagine we wanted to send a manned mission to Mars. One would need fuel to get into space, accelerate to very high speed then slow down again as one approached Mars. A similar amount of fuel would also be needed for the return journey. One could send an unmanned mission first to dump supplies on the surface of Mars or perhaps fuel in orbit around it.

Another problem is that sometimes Mars is relatively close to Earth, sometimes it is much further away. Because of this one would either only be able to stay for a few days before one had to return or one would have to wait for over a year until one could return. Bear in mind that it would probably take about a year to travel there in the first place.

On the journey, the astronauts would be praying that nobody got seriously ill or injured.

Living in zero gravity is very bad for your health. Our bodies have evolved to cope with gravity. Our muscles and bones are strong. It has been discovered that when astronauts are in space for a long time, their muscles waste away from lack of use and their bones become much softer and weaker. Astronauts must spend several hours a day doing heavy exercise because of this.

Perhaps the most dangerous part of the journey is a re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere. The craft must enter the atmosphere at a particular angle then use air resistance to slow itself down, reaching a manageable terminal velocity before landing. This generates a huge amount of heat which is why the space shuttle needs protective tiles on its underside. Many astronauts have died during re-entry.

• The international space station – This is effectively a garage in space. Space ships can be assembled in space.
• A new way of re-entry – Instead of trying to minimise drag on re-entry the craft spaceship 1 actually tries to create as much drag as possible. Like a shuttlecock, it reaches a safe terminal velocity very quickly.
• Artificial gravity – It is possible to simulate gravity in a large revolving space station. The astronauts are thrown against the sides like in a huge washing machine.
• Biospheres – Is it possible to contain a complete self sustaining ecosystem in a capsule? If we are going to colonise hostile environments it may be necessary to do this.
• Cryogenics – It may be possible to freeze people then thaw them out in the future. This would be a good way of passing the time on a long space journey.

• Engineering & Transportation
• Engineering

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From Outer Space to Inner Space: An Apollo Astronaut's Journey Through the Material and Mystical Worlds Paperback – January 1, 2023

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The sixth man who walked on the moon shares his journey to the stars, into the mind, and beyond.

In February 1971, as Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell hurtled Earthward through space, he was engulfed by a profound sense of universal connectedness. He intuitively sensed that his presence and that of the planet in the window were all part of a deliberate, universal process, and that the glittering cosmos itself was, in some way, conscious. The experience was so overwhelming, Mitchell knew his life would never be the same.

For the next thirty-five years, he embarked on another journey, an inward exploration of the ineffable mystery of human consciousness and being. Mitchell left NASA to form the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS). There he initiated research in areas of study previously neglected by mainstream science and constructed a theory that could explain not only the mysteries of consciousness, but also the psychic event―what spiritualists call a “miracle” and scientists dismiss altogether.

Mitchell also created a new dyadic model of reality, revealing a self-aware universe not predetermined by the laws of physics, preordained by deities, or infinitely malleable. While human actions are generally subject to the laws of physics, these laws are also influenced by the mind.

From Outer Space to Inner Space traces two remarkable journeys―one through space and one through the mind. Together they fundamentally alter the way we understand the miracle and mystery of being, and ultimately reveal humankind’s role in its own destiny.

Previously published as The Way of the Explorer, this edition includes a new foreword by Avi Loeb, an afterword by Dean Radin, and a postscript chapter by the author.

• Print length 320 pages
• Language English
• Publisher New Page Books
• Publication date January 1, 2023
• Dimensions 6.2 x 1.2 x 8.6 inches
• ISBN-10 1637480091
• ISBN-13 978-1637480090
• See all details

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About the author.

Dr. Edgar Mitchell (1930–2016), a graduate of MIT with a doctorate in aeronautics and astronautics, Captain in the Navy, was the founder of the Institute of Noetic Sciences and cofounder of the Association of Space Explorers. As an astronaut, he was backup Lunar Module Pilot on Apollo 10 and 16 and flew as Lunar Module Pilot on Apollo 14 where he landed on the moon and became the sixth person to walk on its surface.

Dwight Williams , recipient of the 1989 Jovanovich Award for short fiction, is the author of Raising Lazarus. He lives in Colorado.

Product details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ New Page Books (January 1, 2023)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1637480091
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1637480090
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1 pounds
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.2 x 1.2 x 8.6 inches
• #767 in Aeronautics & Astronautics (Books)
• #1,684 in Scientist Biographies
• #3,781 in Traveler & Explorer Biographies

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Edgar mitchell.

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