If two billion people wanted to watch a robot fly by Pluto, imagine what it will be like when the first humans step on Mars. It’ll be the most unifying event anybody could ever put on. Alan Stern Read Quote
It is only by freeing NASA from routine human transport to low-Earth orbit that we can afford to once again see American astronauts exploring distant worlds. Alan Stern Read Quote
As a scientist in charge of space sensors and entire space missions before I was at NASA, I myself was involved in projects that overran. But that’s no excuse for remaining silent about this growing problem or failing to champion reform. Alan Stern Read Quote
The costs of badly-run NASA projects are paid for with cutbacks or delays in NASA projects that didn’t go over budget. Hence the guilty are rewarded and the innocent are punished. Alan Stern Read Quote
Are governments the only entities that can build human spacecraft? No – actually, every human spacecraft ever built for NASA was built by private industry. Alan Stern Read Quote
Competition-driven innovation and price pressure that commercial practices foster can only make human spaceflight ever more common and U.S. leadership in this domain ever clearer. Alan Stern Read Quote
If you go to planetary science meetings and hear technical talks on Pluto, you will hear experts calling it a planet every day. Alan Stern Read Quote
I think that one of the things that will come out of the New Horizons mission is that the public will take a look, and they won’t know what else to call Pluto but a planet – and a pretty exciting one. Alan Stern Read Quote
Pluto and its brethren are the most populous class of planets in our solar system. Alan Stern Read Quote
