As my old professor Carl Sagan said so often, 'When you’re in love, you want to tell the world.’ And I base my beliefs on the information and the process that we call science. It fills me with joy to make discoveries every day of things I’ve never seen before. It fills me with joy to know that we can pursue these answers. It is an astonishing thing that we are — you and I are one of the ways the universe knows itself.

When we explore the cosmos, we come to believe and prove that we can solve problems that have never been solved. It brings out the best in us. Space exploration imbues everyone with an optimistic view of the future.

What happens to other species also happens to us.

No matter what you may believe spiritually or otherwise, the Earth is clearly not 6,000 or 10,000 years old.

How did we let an ideological resistance to inquiry become such a prominent part of our society?

NASA is an engine of innovation and inspiration as well as the world's premier space exploration agency, and we are well served by politicians working to keep it that way, instead of turning it into a mere jobs program, or worse, cutting its budget.

There's nothing I believe in more strongly than getting young people interested in science and engineering, for a better tomorrow, for all humankind.