aerospace-engineers

"I once read a line written by Chinese soldier on his mission. And here I quote, “If people ask why go into such dangerous places to keep peace, please tell them someone must step forward to safeguard the fundamentals of human civilization.” This is a simple wish of a Chinese soldier. It is also a solemn commitment made by the Chinese military to the world."

"As a matter of fact, regional countries have every wisdom and capability to settle their differences and disputes. At the end of the day, only enhancing dialogue and communication and promoting solidarity and cooperation will ensure stability in our region."

"Fourth, preventing block confrontation with openness and inclusiveness. The cold war mentality is now resurging and greatly increases security risks of block confrontation in the Asia Pacific. Some big power continue to promote its so-called Indo-Pacific strategy. China holds that no strategy should be based on ideological ground and aim to build exclusive military alliances against imagined threats, as this could easily lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy."

"Third, eliminating conflicts and confrontation through mutual trust and consultation. It is natural for countries to disagree with each other. But there are two approaches to addressing differences. One is exacerbating tension and adding fuel to flames, while the other is seeking consensus and promoting reconciliation and negotiations. It is quite clear which one is the right choice."

"It is so called rules-based international order. It never tells you what the rules are and who made these rules. It practices exceptionalism and double standards and only serves the interests and follows the rules of a small number of countries. A just an equitable environment for development meets the shared interests of Asia Pacific countries. Anyone who attempts to fleece the flock or prey on the weak will surely be opposed by countries in the region."

"The true design of pushing for NATO-like military alliances in the Asia Pacific is to hold countries in the region hostage and play up conflict and confrontation that attempts will only plan to the region into a whirlpool of division, disputes and conflicts. History has proven that block politics, division and confrontation have never delivered genuine security. They can only escalate tensions and destabilise the region."

"As the lyrics of a well-known Chinese song goes, when friends visit us, we welcome them with fine wine. When jackals or wolves come, we will face them with shotguns. This illustrates that the Chinese people's character of being friendly and kind but not intimidated by strong power."

"Our dreams are linked. People of different countries are pursuing their own Shangri-La, just like the Chinese people. Long and arduous as our journey may be, we will get to the destination as long as we take concrete steps. Let us work hand in hand to build an Asia Pacific community of shared future, promote stability, prosperity and development in our region, and make the Asia Pacific a better place."

"His words stuck with me: 'It will be a steep learning curve, but you'll manage.' That was all the encouragement I needed to take the leap,"

"He would spend time looking up scholarships and master’s programmes abroad. I had never thought of leaving the country, let alone furthering my studies"

"I didn’t think I stood a chance, but I applied anyway, and to my surprise, I was one of only two Kenyans selected in 2015"

"If I hadn’t pursued excellence, none of this would have happened"

"Keep stretching beyond the comfort zone."

"I wish I had been told to worry less, that what I needed more than anything else was a curious mind."

"I was intrigued, but I was also terrified. Could I go from an undergraduate degree in Kenya to pursuing a PhD in engineering at one of the world's top universities? I barely had any research experience"

"When you don’t have anyone in high places to speak your name or open doors for you, your best bet is to take a chance on excellence, God, and a bit of luck"

"Today the dreams of the best sons of mankind have come true. The assault on space has begun."

"{{Translated quote"

"He was one of the very best."

"Anyone can build complicated. Our actions are determined by simplicity."

"Why congratulate me? We are miners, no one knows our names, we work underground."

"The further conquest of space will make it possible, for example, to create systems of satellites making daily revolutions around our planet at an altitude of some 40,000 kilometers, and to assure universal communications and the relaying of radio and television transmissions. There is no such thing as an unsolvable problem."

"The time will come when a spacecraft carrying human beings will leave the earth and set out on a voyage to distant planets to remote worlds. Today this may seem only an enticing fantasy, but such in fact is not the case. The launching of the first two Soviet Sputniks has already thrown a sturdy bridge from the earth into space, and the way to the stars is open."

"The Soviets deliberately created their own geographic confusion, trying to conceal the location of their manned space center. By 1957, CIA spy planes had spotted the pad near the Central Asian railway station of Tyura-Tam, which CIA analysts proceeded to misspell forever after as "Tyuratam." In 1961, the Soviets, in a vain attempt at ex post facto geographic disinformation, named their launch site "Baikonur," which was itself a clumsy transliteration of Baikonyr, a small mining village hundreds of miles from the space base. When Kazakhstan became autonomous in 1991 and took nominal sovereignty over the spaceport, its leaders began referring to it as "Baikonyr." Perhaps someday the Russians can drop the now- admitted fraud once and for all and name the space base for the man who founded it, Sergei Korolev; then all the world's maps could carry a single -- and honorable -- designation."

"He was very positive; it was inside him. He tried to attract different people of all levels beginning from the worker. In his work place there was everybody. I worked in the competitive design bureau, but I met with him many times. I have nothing against him, but I had this feeling, which was bringing me to him, because he was the person who could make everybody work for him, and not really pressing them for it."

"Soon we will have people on Mars, and we truly will be multi-planetary. And the young boy or the young girl who will be going to Mars could be in this audience or listening today. I have wanted to work at JPL on these missions since I was 14 years old and I am privileged to be a part of it. And this is a remarkable time in the space program, and we are all in this journey together. So the next time you think you don't have enough time in your day, just remember, it's all a matter of your Earthly perspective."

"I think it’s tremendously important to meet people, to establish a connection and tell people about space... It can increase trust, and that is something that is so badly needed, today... An awful lot depends on leaders... Putin took over a country that was on the brink of disintegration; he rebuilt it, and gave us hope again. People trust him... You only have to see how he is received, how people respond to him. He’s a splendid person."

"We believed each of us was worthy of being chosen... There is a bond, a comradeship, that never goes away. (about the five women who competed for the 1963 space mission)... Americans, Asians, everyone who has seen it (the view of the Earth from space) says the same thing, how unbelievably beautiful the Earth is and how very important it is to look after it. Our planet suffers from human activity, from fires, from war; we have to preserve it... When you are up there, you are homesick for Earth as your cradle. When you get back, you just want to get down and hug it... People shouldn’t waste money on wars..."

"A Bird cannot fly with one wing only. Human space flight cannot develop any further without active participation of women... If women can be railroad workers in Russia, why can't they fly in space?"

"If I had money, I would enjoy flying to Mars... This was the dream of the first cosmonauts. I wish I could realize it! I am ready to fly without coming back."

"One cannot deny the great role women have played in the world community. My flight was yet another impetus to continue this female contribution."

"I propose either to remove the restrictions on the presidential term, or to write in one of the articles of the bill the provision that after the updated Constitution enters into force, the incumbent president, like any other citizen, has the right to be elected to the post of head of state...Why build artificial structures, everything must be provided for honestly and openly... We either need to remove the restrictions on the number of presidential terms in the Constitution, or (if the situation demands it, and most importantly, if people want it) to lay down in the law the option for the incumbent president to be re-elected already in accordance with the updated Constitution (...) I was asked [to make this proposal] not by political circles, but by ordinary people."

"The story of the peasant’s daughter who became a household name thanks to communism’s achievements made her a role model for young Soviet women. Her photograph smiling from a space suit became an icon. President Vladimir Putin, who invited Tereshkova to his residence near Moscow to mark her birthday, said her flight remained an inspiration for the resurgent Russia of today. “Your flight was, and will remain, a matter of pride for the Soviet people, for the Russian people,” he told Tereshkova who sported the gold star of the Hero of the Soviet Union on her black suit. Tereshkova all but disappeared from public life after the Soviet Union collapsed and now heads an obscure international cooperation association under the auspices of the foreign ministry and takes part in private projects helping orphans. “I want you to know I will serve the country to the end,” she told Putin."

"Many of the women on the squad described Valentina Tereshkova as a good friend. “She always advocated for our interests in front of the bosses. For example, in the beginning of the program we lived as if we were behind the barbed wire. We lived near Moscow but only Muscovites were allowed to leave the training camp to see their families,” Zhanna Yorkina recalled. “Me and Tereshkova got bored and asked for permission to go to Moscow. ‘What for? What do you want to buy?’ they said. Once, Valentina Tereshkova lost control and blurted out the following: ‘Knickers! That’s what we want to buy!’ This is how we got permission.”"

"As launch day drew closer, some of the women suspected they would not be chosen. Valentina Tereshkova was garnering a lot of attention, and it was soon officially confirmed that she would fly... someone more extroverted was needed, since they would be dealing with worldwide publicity following the flight... a working-class woman would be a better representation of Soviet ideals than one from a white-collar family."

"On 16th June 1963, Soviet Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova broke boundaries and set multiple records which, to this day, have not been broken...At the time of her birth both parents worked on farmland. Her father, Vladimir Tereshkov, was a tractor driver. He was killed during the first six months of WWII, before Valentina had reached her third birthday...Valentina left school aged 16 and began her first job in a tyre factory. Soon after she moved her focus and worked at a textile mill. During this time she continued her education via correspondence courses with Moscow’s Light Industry Technical School. She graduated in 1960. Even with such a demanding schedule, she still managed to indulge in her fascination with skydiving. Her dedication to this pass time was so intense that, after completing her first jump aged just 22, she became competitive in the sport. She managed to keep this hobby a secret from her family during her early days in this arena."

"Tereshkova was the first woman in space. She completed 48 orbits of the Earth, she spent 2 days 22 hrs 50 mins in space during her first and only orbital mission, she is – to date – the only woman to fly solo beyond our atmosphere and she is still the youngest woman ever to enter space, aged just 26 years."

"Tereshkova logged more than 70 hours in space and made 48 orbits of Earth. Soviet and European TV viewers saw her smiling face and her logbook floating in front of her. They did not realize that the flight almost turned into tragedy, a fact that was classified for about 40 years... An error in the spacecraft's automatic navigation software caused the ship to move away from Earth... Tereshkova noticed this and Soviet scientists quickly developed a new landing algorithm. Tereshkova landed safely but received a bruise on her face. She landed in the Altay region near today's Kazakhstan-Mongolia-China border. Villagers helped Tereshkova out of her spacesuit and asked her to join them for dinner. She accepted, and was later reprimanded for violating the rules and not undergoing medical tests first... However, Tereshkova was honored with the title Hero of the Soviet Union... received the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star Medal... became a spokesperson for the Soviet Union and while fulfilling this role, she received the United Nations Gold Medal of Peace."

"While in space, Ms Tereshkova spoke directly with Khrushchev, reporting that "all systems are working perfectly" and that she felt "excellent". He replied: "Valentina, I am very happy and proud that a girl from the Soviet Union is the first woman to fly into space and to operate such cutting-edge equipment". Ms Tereshkova became the first woman to go into space on 16 June 1963. She completed 48 orbits of the Earth in a trip that lasted almost three days. Her call signal was "Seagull", and she shouted this joyful message as her Vostok-6 Spacecraft blasted off: "Hey sky, take off your hat, I'm on my way!" It was at the height of the space race between the US and the Soviet Union."

"Hope is the possibility of always having something to achieve."

"Feminism, human rights and zero discrimination are values deeply rooted across the world: they express our humanity, our recognition that I am because you are. And they are central to the struggle to beat AIDS. Let us beat AIDS. It can be done."

"Worldwide, AIDS remains the biggest killer of women aged 15–49 years. To end AIDS by 2030, we must end gender-based violence, inequality and insecurity and we must ensure that women and girls have equal access to education, health and employment. We need to transform our societies so that no one is second class and everyone’s human rights are respected. AIDS cannot be beaten while marginalized communities, including lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people, people who inject drugs and sex workers, live in fear of the state or of socially sanctioned violence and abuse. Beating AIDS depends on tackling all forms of discrimination. I want to thank all the brave and determined social justice movements who are the true leaders in this work. I salute you."

"Those are the jobs we've been told about, that globalization is bringing jobs. The quality of the jobs matter. It matters. These are not jobs of dignity. In many countries, workers no longer have a voice. They are not allowed to unionize, they are not allowed to negotiate for salaries. So we're talking about jobs, but jobs that bring dignity. We're talking about health care. The World Bank has told us that 3.4 billion people who earn $5.50 a day are on the verge, are just a medical bill away from sinking into poverty. They don't have health care. They are just a crop failure away from sinking back into poverty. They don't have crop insurance. So don't tell me about low levels of unemployment. You are counting the wrong things. You're not counting dignity of people. You're counting exploited people."

"People are ready for change. They want to see workers paid a ; they want corporations and the to pay more tax; they want women workers to enjoy the same rights as men; they want a limit on the power and the wealth which sits in the hands of so few. They want action."

"It’s hard to find a political or business leader who doesn’t say they are worried about inequality. It’s even harder to find one who is doing something about it. Many are actively making things worse by slashing taxes and scrapping ."

"As the Executive Director of UNAIDS, I lead the work of the United Nations to tackle AIDS. I’m also someone who has lost family members to AIDS. This is personal. Both my own family experience and our collective experience at the United Nations have highlighted the same key lesson: the struggle to beat AIDS is inseparable from the struggle for women’s rights and from the struggle against all forms of discrimination. AIDS can be beaten, but it will only be beaten if we take on the social and economic injustices that perpetuate it and spur more scientific innovations to address the real needs of women and girls and people living with and vulnerable to HIV."

"When the world’s richest 1% own as much as the poorest 50%, we have a problem."

"The billionaire boom is not a sign of a thriving economy but a symptom of a failing economic system. The people who make our clothes, assemble our phones and grow our food are being exploited to ensure a steady supply of cheap goods, and swell the profits of corporations and billionaire investors."

"Our true motivation isn't sustained only by titles and material results of a campaign. Our actual reward is not to have "that" car, or to reach "that" specific post. In reality, we seek emotional satisfaction: to feel pleasure and happiness!"

"What someone says or writes about me doesn't change the way I am; it only changes my opinion about that person."