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Quotes by Astronaut

"I did grow up with a really big interest in math and science; I liked it."

"I think the crux of the matter was that if we were going to become partners in, for example, the International Space Station, we had to gain the respect of a country like the United States and particularly its space organization, NASA."


"But when I wasn't working, I was usually at a window looking down at Earth."

"It's only when you're flying above it that you realize how incredible the Earth really is."

"I could do exploration in this particular career field, and it was a goal that, even if I didn't reach it, it was so high it seemed almost impossible, but even if I didn't reach it, I would still have a good time and a very satisfying career."


"I think there are huge lessons there, for young people who are getting started in life, as well as other people. And that is, to take responsibility for your own life. Only you are responsible for the course you take from there."

"I will go around the space shuttle and give a guided tour of the major areas and describe what is done in each area. This will be called The Ultimate Field Trip."

"I'm looking forward to coming back, back to Earth, the landing, the views."

"Now, I've never flown in space; but the folks who have say that on landing day, you know, you've just spent maybe a week and a half, sometimes two weeks in orbit and you're used to the things happening slowly in space."

"I've always enjoyed traveling and having experience with different cultures and different people. But it's also a wonderful thing to be able to benefit and enable research, not only in our country but around the world."

"The pilot looked at his cues of attitude and speed and orientation and so on and responded as he would from the same cues in an airplane, but there was no way it flew the same. The simulators had showed us that."


"Once you are assigned to a flight, the whole crew is assigned at the same time, and then that crew trains together for a whole year to prepare for that flight."
Time,


"I felt very honored, and I knew that people would be watching very closely, and I felt it was very, very important that I do a good job."

"The most painful thing about mathematics is how far away you are from being able to use it after you have learned it."

"I guess we all like to be recognized not for one piece of fireworks, but for the ledger of our daily work."
Work,

"I'd like to say I was smart enough to finish six grades in five years, but I think perhaps the teacher was just glad to get rid of me."


"The statistics of life out there and the statistics of intelligent beings and advanced civilization is a certainty, the way I look at it. that It has not been accepted, because we've been in an anthropocentric era."

"We launch when we're kind of in the same orbit that they are in terms of being matched up in inclination in space, and we're just in a little different altitude."


"And then my chance really happened in 1996 when we added the second flight of the tether satellite."

"My sympathies have always been for working-class people."


"I slept just floating in the middle of the flight deck, the upper deck of the space shuttle."


"I thought it was going to take a lot more countdowns on the pad. We actually did scrub once, but I figured we'd scrub several times since it's a pretty complicated vehicle."


"Sometimes people here can get so focused on, Oh, I've got to get a flight, that it becomes the end all of everything. Then they go off and fly a couple of flights and they think, Okay, is that all there is in life? No, it's not. There's a whole big life out there."

"The excitement really didn't start to build until the trailer - which was carrying me, with a space suit with ventilation and all that sort of stuff - pulled up to the launch pad."

"It's a brilliant surface in that sunlight. The horizon seems quite close to you because the curvature is so much more pronounced than here on earth. It's an interesting place to be. I recommend it."

"After the Shuttle checks out on its two upcoming flights, it will be ready to take larger components up to the International Space Station later this fall."
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