1 00:00:01,001 --> 00:00:03,003 Why does NASA exist? 2 00:00:03,670 --> 00:00:05,505 Why do we exist? 3 00:00:06,172 --> 00:00:11,343 Why does life exist upon this strange and lonely planet? 4 00:00:11,343 --> 00:00:14,345 How did we arrive and for what reason? 5 00:00:14,846 --> 00:00:20,350 An age-old question. One that each of us at one time or another has asked. 6 00:00:20,350 --> 00:00:24,020 Each time the Universe responds with silence. 7 00:00:24,520 --> 00:00:30,858 NASA stands before that silence and probes that mystery. 8 00:00:30,858 --> 00:00:39,699 We stand with NASA in response to the incredible miracle of impossible life on an insensate world. 9 00:00:41,033 --> 00:00:44,836 We move back to a Moon that we wish we had never deserted. 10 00:00:44,836 --> 00:00:56,012 We move onward to Mars to establish a base and then a community and finally a miniature civilization on its enigmatic soil. 11 00:00:56,012 --> 00:01:03,684 All this will be done not as a technological fear, a military exercise, or as a display of human vanity. 12 00:01:03,684 --> 00:01:17,028 We do it because NASA has realized that the Universe which extends for billions of light years in all directions is meaningless unless-- 13 00:01:18,029 --> 00:01:19,363 Unless what? 14 00:01:21,198 --> 00:01:27,837 Unless there are observers and caretakers of that stunning interstellar display. 15 00:01:27,837 --> 00:01:34,175 The Universe demands to be noticed, to be seen, and dutifully noted. 16 00:01:34,175 --> 00:01:46,685 What use all those incredible firework dimensions if no eye fixes and reflects, no brain takes notes, no heart moves with passion at the display? 17 00:01:47,686 --> 00:01:53,857 NASA answers the silent cry of the Cosmos for recognition. 18 00:01:53,857 --> 00:02:00,696 NASA is the witness and we fellow witnesses to the endless deeps. 19 00:02:01,363 --> 00:02:16,342 NASA’s activities are "our" activities. The purpose of life on Earth is to see, to know, and to tell what the Cosmos has to offer. 20 00:02:16,342 --> 00:02:31,020 Without us human beings, without NASA, the Universe would be unseen, unknown, untouched. A mindless abyss of stars ask to be discovered. 21 00:02:31,020 --> 00:02:40,861 So NASA in the coming years will be chief witness and we as fellow observers, celebrants to the cause. 22 00:02:40,861 --> 00:02:53,672 NASA and we have been given the job by genetic accident and surprise of crying Lo! to an unsolvable territory. 23 00:02:53,672 --> 00:03:03,012 NASA and we do this to see, to know, and to prevail. Life one day on Earth will vanish through intemperate heat or cold. 24 00:03:03,012 --> 00:03:09,851 We prepare ourselves for the Time of Going Away to other worlds, to other stars. 25 00:03:09,851 --> 00:03:16,690 Why? Because we love and value this life and living that has been given to us. 26 00:03:19,525 --> 00:03:24,663 Ours the obligation and to see and know and try to understand. 27 00:03:24,663 --> 00:03:36,672 First then, the Moon, then threshold Mars, and one far future day to landfall some world adrift near Alpha Centauri.