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title Voyager Spacecraft Statement by the President
author Jimmy Carter, 39th President of the United States: 1977 ‐ 1981
content description statement
source https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/voyager-spacecraft-statement-the-president
terms of use Copyright © The American Presidency Project

1Jimmy Carter, Voyager Spacecraft Statement by the President.
2July 29, 1977
3Note : The statement has been placed in a National Aeronautics and Space Administration Voyager spacecraft which is scheduled to be launched August 20.
4The statement is recorded in electronic impulses which can be converted into printed words.
5This Voyager spacecraft was constructed by the United States of America.
6We are a community of 240 million human beings among the more than 4 billion who inhabit the planet Earth.
7We human beings are still divided into nation states, but these states are rapidly becoming a single global civilization.
8We cast this message into the cosmos.
9It is likely to survive a billion years into our future, when our civilization is profoundly altered and the surface of the Earth may be vastly changed.
10Of the 200 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy, some -- perhaps many -- may have inhabited planets and spacefaring civilizations.
11If one such civilization intercepts Voyager and can understand these recorded contents, here is our message:
12This is a present from a small distant world, a token of our sounds, our science, our images, our music, our thoughts, and our feelings.
13We are attempting to survive our time so we may live into yours.
14We hope someday, having solved the problems we face, to join a community of galactic civilizations.
15This record represents our hope and our determination, and our good will in a vast and awesome universe.