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1 " Open collaboration encourages greater accountability, which in turn fosters trust. "
― Ron Garan , The Orbital Perspective: Lessons in Seeing the Big Picture from a Journey of 71 Million Miles
2 " We are limited only by our imagination and our will to act. "
3 " People are more likely to remember the great social interaction they had with a colleague than the great meeting they both attended. "
4 " If we adopt the same collaborative mindset and practices that got to the moon and back, and that built the International Space Station, we can alleviate poverty—and do much more. "
5 " Earth is a small town with many neighborhoods in a very big universe. "
6 " This was exactly what I experienced in space: immense gratitude for the opportunity to see Earth from this vantage, and for the gift of the planet we've been given. "
7 " A partner's different perspective is valuable, but the very fact that it is different means that it will require work, humility, time, and resources to incorporate that perspective. At times, this will require checking one's pride at the door. "
8 " After mutual respect and understanding are achieved, it is possible to establish real, sincere relationships, which is the foundation of a solid long-term collaboration. "
9 " Everyone I have spoken with about working with the Russians in space exploration believes that the United States has learned a great deal from Russia and that Russia has learned a great deal from the United States – and that the entire international space partnership is much better because of it. "
10 " And in that moment, I was hit with the realization that this delicate layer of atmosphere is all that protects every living thing on Earth from perishing in the harshness of space. "
11 " At this point I thought 'We made it,' by which I meant 'We survived.' I also was acutely aware that my childhood dream of flying into space had just come true. "
12 " Ideally, the ISS program will just be one more incremental step on an expanding, incredible journal of exploration and understanding, taking us higher and farther. "
13 " I lay on my back, surprised at how calm and focused I felt, strapped to four and a half million pounds of explosives. "
14 " Love is a powerful perspective-expanding tool that can unite us in ways that seem impossible. By opening up to love, the possibilities become endless. "
― Ron Garan , Floating in Darkness - A Journey of Evolution
15 " Weightlessness was wonderful, and I was surprised at how natural it felt. "
16 " The ISS would not be the incredibly capable orbiting research facility it is today without either Russians or Americans, just as it couldn't have been built without the Canadian arm used in its construction. "
17 " You can't solve problems until you understand the other side." –Jeffrey Manber "
18 " We essentially had to build a docking mechanism between the two capsules. We didn't have to share a lot of data, and we did that at the height of the Cold War, which was pretty symbolic." –Bill Gerstenmaier "
19 " As the complexity of the material universe reaches critical mass, a primordial certainty echoes throughout creation in a loud, simultaneous proclamation: We are one! "
20 " All of us in combat were inextricably dependent on each other for our very lives. We were not only fighting for our country, we were fighting for each other.• I know that part of what I was fighting for was the freedom we all cherish so dearly, including freedom of speech, but this is different. Having the right to free speech does not mean you have a right to your own facts or your own truth. Having free speech is not a free pass to spew hatred or to abandon civil discourse. • The commitment and sacrifice of military members extends beyond combat. The sacrifices are real and exist twenty-four/seven regardless if we are in peacetime or war. • In some way, we are like Plato’s prisoners chained in a cave, unable to turn our heads. We only see shadows on the cave wall. We are oblivious to the larger, more colorful and more desirable world outside of the cave. • I think where religion may go astray is when leaders and followers of a specific religious doctrine or tradition mistake the vehicle of religion for truth itself. "
