Buzz Aldrin

“Nobody cares about the bronze or silver medals.”

“I've been to the Titanic in a yellow submarine and the North Pole in a Russian nuclear ice breaker.”

“Bringing an asteroid back to Earth? What's that have to do with space exploration? If we were moving outward from there, and an asteroid is a good stopping point, then fine. But now it's turned into a whole planetary defense exercise at the cost of our outward exploration.”

“America can take man to the moon, and America can take men to Mars - and beyond.”

“I shot down two airplanes in Korea, so I wasn't a slouch.”

“We could have human intelligence in orbit around Mars, building things there.”

“The first footfalls on Mars will mark a historic milestone, an enterprise that requires human tenacity matched with technology to anchor ourselves on another world.”

“I want to reach a new generation. That's why I am Twittering now. I have a BlackBerry, an iPhone and a Mac.”

“I know: If you're looking down at Earth, you're looking through an atmosphere that has a bit of haze in many places and not just occasional clouds.”

“Mars is there, waiting to be reached.”

“During the divorce process, I lived alone and tended to get extremely down on myself.”

“When you go to Mars, you need to have made the decision that you're there permanently. The more people we have there, the more it can become a sustaining environment. Except for very rare exceptions, the people who go to Mars shouldn't be coming back. Once you get on the surface, you're there.”

“I am Buzz Lightyear!”

“When I was a little kid, we only knew about our nine planets. Since then, we've downgraded Pluto but have discovered that other solar systems and stars are common. So life is probably quite prevalent.”

“Some things just can't be described. And stepping onto the moon was one of them.”

“'Anthony and the Magic Picture Frame' tells it like it really was in America's early space program - the adventure, the risks, and the rewards.”

“I feel we need to remind the world about the Apollo missions and that we can still do impossible things.”

“Astronauts working for the government will always need to be either pilots or mission specialists. Those who want to be pilots should have military experience - ideally, a test pilot background.”

“We should've asked China to be a portion of the space station. We should've worked out ways that we can... just give away the technology that we have that puts things up into space, with cooperation up above the atmosphere that's needed to help each other.”

“My expertise is the space program and what it should be in the future based on my experience of looking at the transitions that we've made between pre-Sputnik days and getting to the moon.”