The pilgrims on the Mayflower landed at Plymouth Rock. To my knowledge, they didn't wait around for a return trip to Europe. You settle some place with a purpose. If you don't want to do that, stay home. You avoid an awful lot of risks by not venturing outward.

There were about six years when there was not one American who went into space. We shouldn't do that again.

To me, money is a commodity that a person must have to function, not a goal in itself.

Let's not spend resources that we don't need to be sending astronauts back to the moon. Let's not spend expensive resources on bringing people who have reached Mars back again. Prepare them to become a growing colony.

When we can demonstrate that we can take off horizontally and put something into orbit, then we can begin to talk about increasing the amount of payload. But to say, 'I'm going to do that and put people into orbit' is a real leap.

The big companies are the private industry. But they're faced with a short-term need to show a profit in short-term.

We must still think of ourselves as pioneers to understand the importance of space.