English subtitles for clip: File:President Obama & NASA Astronaut Scott Kelly.webm

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The President: Well, this is
a treat for me, at the end

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of a long week, to be able
to visit with a couple of

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friends, but also, I
believe, American heroes.

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In particular, I want to say
thank you, on behalf of the

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American people,
to Scott Kelly.

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As some of you know, a while
back, Scott completed what

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was the longest period
of time that any U.S.

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astronaut has ever spent
in space -- almost a year.

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And what made this so
important was not just to

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break a record, it gave us
an opportunity to learn how

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Scott, as an astronaut, is
impacted by lengthy stay

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like that.

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And we've got somebody to
compare him to -- his twin

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brother Mark,
also an astronaut.

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So as a consequence, what we
were able to learn is how

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does the body adapt, what
kinds of physiological

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impacts -- psychologically,
from what I understand from

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Scott, he was pretty good.

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But all this allows us
to start thinking about

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long-term manned
space flight.

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And as I announced recently,
our goal -- our next goal --

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not our ultimate goal, but
our next goal is to

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get to Mars.

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And obviously, we've
got a lot of work to do

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technologically to figure
out how to get there, what

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kinds of space crafts
allows us to do

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that most effectively.

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But if we're going to do a
manned flight, then one of

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the keys is making sure that
our astronauts who are going

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out into space for that long
period of time are also then

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able to come back -- what
kinds of environments do we

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need to create for them,
what are the biological

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sciences, and other elements
that will allow for a

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successful mission.

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So we are extraordinarily
grateful to Scott for the

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sacrifices that he's made.

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He did all kinds of science
experimenting up there that

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is over my head and I won't
even try to explain, but the

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data, the knowledge that
we've accumulated from his

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incredible adventure is
something that is going to

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serve us in good stead as we
continue to accelerate and

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advance our
forays into space.

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As everybody knows, I'm a
big space fan, and Charles

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Bolden, another
ex-astronaut, along with my

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Chief Science Advisor, John
Holdren, have been working

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closely with me to maximize
the investments that we

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make, to try to encourage
Congress to work with us so

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that that final frontier is
something that continues to

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inspire, continues to
motivate the imaginations of

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young people, and creates
enormous spillover effects

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-- because when we learn
about space, we're also

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learning about ourselves,
and ultimately, we're

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learning about technologies
that can make a difference

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in terms of our
day-to-day lives.

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One last point I'd make is,
Scott was sharing with me

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what the planet looks like
from up above and how much

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of a perspective it gives on
the need for us to preserve

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this planet.

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And so I'm going to have
just a couple more remarks,

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but I thought this would
maybe be a good time, Scott,

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for you just to share with
everybody else what you just

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shared with me in terms of
what it means when you're

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seeing day in and day
out our planet Earth.

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Mr. Scott Kelly: Well,
thank you, Mr. President.

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Thank you, sir, for having
us here today, and thanks

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for supporting NASA in your
new initiative for us to

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start really thinking
hard about going to Mars.

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I think that's our next
very worthy goal in space.

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And what the President is
referring to is, being in

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space for a whole year, you
get this perspective of

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seeing the Earth through
changing seasons and

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different lighting
conditions.

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And when I was in space for
shorter periods of time, I

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would often think, well,
maybe the Earth is just

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looking like that because
it's a weather pattern or

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it's not how it always
appears throughout the year.

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But seeing places like China
and India, and the pollution

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that exists there almost all
the time is quite shocking.

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And there was one day last
summer, the summer of 2015,

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when I was in space I saw
the eastern side of China

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was perfectly clear.

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And I'd never seen that
before in all of my time in

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space, and I'd spent well
over a year in space, total,

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at that point.

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And I could see all these
cities that are -- there's

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like over 200 cities in that
part of China, with over

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a million people.

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And it was at dusk, and I
could just, for the very

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first time, I was able to
see them, and it

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was quite shocking.

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I didn't really understand
it until the next day I

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heard that the Chinese
government had turned off a

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lot of the coal-producing
power plants, stopped the

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cars from running in that
part of the country for this

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national holiday, and the
sky had completely cleared.

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So it's interesting to see
just how much of a negative

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impact we have on the
environment, but also how

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quickly we can have a
positive impact on it if we

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decide to do something
-- not to mention the

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atmosphere is very, very
thin and scary-looking when

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you see it from space.

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The President: That's a good
reminder that we need to do

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everything we can to
preserve this place

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we call home.

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Because of people like Scott
and Mark, we are continuing

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to see young people inspired
to get into science, math,

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engineering, technology
-- what we call STEM.

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As many of you know, we've
been really trying to

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emphasis STEM education,
including hosting a White

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House Science Fair, so that
the incredible achievements

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of our best young
minds are celebrated.

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At the last one, a
nine-year-old budding

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scientist said to me, you
need a kid science advisory

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group so that you're getting
our perspective about what's

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interesting to us and how
you should be thinking about

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teaching science and getting
kids excited about science.

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And then I thought, that's
why you're smarter than me.

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(laughter)

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So we, in fact,
have formed a science

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advisory group, which
is meeting as we speak.

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After we finish here, we're
going to go and talk to

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them, because I suspect that
there are going to be some

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of those young people in the
Roosevelt Room who are going

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to be the ones to figure out
how we not just get to Mars,

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but colonize Mars
and go beyond.

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They're the ones who are
going to figuring

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out these technologies.

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But they will be building
off the incredible work of

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people like Scott
Kelly and Mark Kelly.

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And my last point, I want to
say thank you to Mark Kelly.

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With his wife, Gabby
Giffords, they have been

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doing incredible work
around making sure that, in

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addition to taking care of
the planet and understanding

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our environment, that we're
also thinking smartly about

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gun safety and the
preventable deaths that

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bring so much tragedy and
hardship to so

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many people's lives.

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My understanding is Gabby,
right now, is on a

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42-day bus trip.

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Mr. Mark Kelly: --
42 days, 42 cities.

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The President: -- 42 days
and 42 cities -- Mr. Mark

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Kelly: Bus trip.

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The President: -- bus trip,
and just talking about the

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importance of us getting
together in a bipartisan way

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to do something
about gun safety.

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And so, in addition to doing
cool stuff in space, they're

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also helping us think
smartly about how to make

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our country better on
a day-to-day basis.

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So we're so glad
she's doing well.

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We want to thank
both of them.

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At some other time, if you
haven't already heard, you

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should get some stories from
Scott about what it's like

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after you've been in space
for almost a year, and then

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you come down and
you're walking around.

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My understanding is that his
head got a little larger -

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(laughter)

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-- measurably so.

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And we don't just mean ego.

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(laughter)

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But apparently
it's back to normal size.

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I wanted to see him right
away, but folks thought it

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might be a little scary.

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(laughter)

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All right.

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Thank you, guys.