Yuri Shargin is a Russian cosmonaut who was born on April 6, 1960, in Moscow, Russia. He served as a Colonel in the Russian Air Force before being selected as a cosmonaut candidate in 1997. Shargin made his first spaceflight aboard the Soyuz TMA-5 spacecraft, which launched on October 14, 2004, and docked with the International Space Station (ISS) two days later. During his mission, Shargin conducted scientific experiments and performed maintenance tasks on the ISS. He spent a total of ten days in space before returning to Earth aboard the Soyuz TMA-4 spacecraft on October 24, 2004. This mission marked Shargin’s only spaceflight experience.

Yuri Shargin Quotes

01. “Nothing will stop us. The road to the stars is steep and dangerous. But we’re not afraid . . . Space flights can’t be stopped. This isn’t the work of one man or even a group of men. It is a historical process which mankind is carrying out in accordance with the natural laws of human development.”
― Yuri Shargin

02. “I see Earth! It is so beautiful.”
― Yuri Shargin

03. “The path of a cosmonaut is not an easy, triumphant march to glory. You have to get to know the meaning not just of joy but also of grief, before being allowed in the spacecraft cabin.”
― Yuri Shargin

04. “I could have gone on flying through space forever.”
― Yuri Shargin

05. “I saw for the first time the earth’s shape. I could easily see the shores of continents, islands, great rivers, folds of the terrain, large bodies of water. The horizon is dark blue, smoothly turning to black. . . the feelings which filled me I can express with one word―joy.”
― Yuri Shargin

06. “I looked and looked but I didn’t see God.”
― Yuri Shargin

07. “Rays were blazing through the atmosphere of the earth, the horizon became bright orange, gradually passing into all the colors of the rainbow: from light blue to dark blue, to violet and then to black. What an indescribable gamut of colors! Just like the paintings of the artist Nicholas Roerich.”
― Yuri Shargin

08. “Mankind never gains anything without cost. There never has been a bloodless victory over nature.”
― Yuri Shargin

09. “Spaceflights can’t be stopped. This isn’t the work of any one man or even a group of men. It is a historical process which mankind is carrying out in accordance with the natural laws of human development.”
― Yuri Shargin

10. “Looking at the earth from a far you realize it is too small for conflict and just big enough for co―operation.”
― Yuri Shargin

11. “The Earth is blue… how wonderful. It is amazing!”
― Yuri Shargin

12. “To be the first to enter the cosmos, to engage, single―handed, in an unprecedented duel with nature―could one dream of anything more?”
― Yuri Shargin

13. “What beauty. I saw clouds and their light shadows on the distant dear earth…. The water looked like darkish, slightly gleaming spots…. When I watched the horizon, I saw the abrupt, contrasting transition from the earth’s light―colored surface to the absolutely black sky. I enjoyed the rich color spectrum of the earth. It is surrounded by a light blue aureole that gradually darkens, becomes turquoise, dark blue, violet, and finally coal black.”
― Yuri Shargin

14. “In all times and epochs the greatest happiness for man has been to take part in new discoveries.”
― Yuri Shargin