dailydot:

“My friend’s husband was assigned to transport the remains of Neil Armstrong back to Washington DC aboard Air Force 1.” [via]

Chandra/Hubble/Spitzer X-ray/Visible/Infrared Image of M82

“But the astronauts who lost their lives on CHALLENGER, as well as the other eight astronauts who were killed in the line of duty and the four Soviet cosmonauts who died in space serve as inspiration for us all. None of them would have wanted to give her or his life in vain. None would have wanted us to stop striving for the stars. If anything, we must continue to preserve their dreams.”

— Doug Fulmer, AD ADSTRA, July/August, 1991

Out of This Whirl: the Whirlpool Galaxy (M51) and Companion Galaxy

“The urge to explore has propelled evolution since the first water creatures reconnoitered the land. Like all living systems, cultures cannot remain static; they evolve or decline. They explore or expire… . Beyond all rationales, space flight is a spiritual quest in the broadest sense, one promising a revitalization of humanity and a rebirth of hope no less profound than the great opening out of mind and spirit at the dawn of our modern age.”

— Buzz Aldrin (born Edwin Eugene Aldrin, Jr), From the Moon to the Millennium, 1999.

Crater Tycho on the Moon

“For when I look at the Moon I do not see a hostile, empty world. I see the radiant body where man has taken his first steps into a frontier that will never end.”

— David R. Scott, Commander Apollo 15, National Geographicmagazine, Volume 144, No 3, September 1973.

Fact: There are two golf balls sitting on the moon.

On the first moon landing, US astronaut Alan Shepard swung a six iron four times. His first swing moved the ball less than a meter; his second swing missed and kicked up some dust. The third swing hit that same first ball about 200 yards - a slice. Then he dropped a second ball, and his fourth swing hit the ball about 400 yards. 

“We need to have people up there who can communicate what it feels like, not just pilots and engineers.”

— Buzz Aldrin (born Edwin Eugene Aldrin, Jr), quoted in The Real Mars, 2004

“I know the stars are my home. I learned about them, needed them for survival in terms of navigation. I know where I am when I look up at the sky. I know where I am when I look up at the Moon; it’s not just some abstract romantic idea, it’s something very real to me. See, I’ve expanded my home.”

— Eugene Cernan, astronaut and moonwalker, Life magazine, November 1988.

Yuri Gagarin(First man in space)

“It’s human nature to stretch, to go, to see, to understand. Exploration is not a choice, really; it’s an imperative.”

— Michael Collins

“Every generation has the obligation to free men’s minds for a look at new worlds …  to look out from a higher plateau than the last generation.”

—  Ellison S. Onizuka, born in Kealakekua, Kona, was Hawaii’s first astronaut and the first Asian American in space.

Fact: If two pieces of metal touch in space, they become permanently stuck together

This may sound unbelievable, but it is true. Two pieces of metal without any coating on them will form in to one piece in the vacuum of space. This doesn’t happen on earth because the atmosphere puts a layer of oxidized material between the surfaces. This might seem like it would be a big problem on the space station but as most tools used there have come from earth, they are already coated with material. In fact, the only evidence of this seen so far has been in experiments designed to provoke the reaction. This process is called cold welding. For those who still don’t believe it, here is the Wikipedia article on Cold Welding.