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Quotes by Astronaut


"Living inside the shuttle was a little like camping out. We ended up sleeping in our seats. You had to pay attention to housekeeping, not get things too dirty."

"And, I was really impressed with how beautiful our country was and how friendly the people were."


"Looking down at the Earth, you started to pick up a sense of speed much more than I had noticed on orbit."


"Well, we spend an awful lot of our time working and doing experiments. It's very busy up on the shuttle."
Time,


"And so, I will be probably, since I am not involved in all the activity, I will have some spare time to devote to document all this busy part of the flight."


"When people have asked if I'd like to go in the Shuttle, I said you don't get to fly it, except for landing, which I'd love to do. I wouldn't go unless I could command it."

"I feel very privileged to be part of this mission, and when my nomination was announced, I was really very, very happy to be selected for this mission."

"I hope that China will continue with space exploration. It would be logical to have international co-operation. I hope that it will come about and that I can be involved in it."

"And, all these things need to be coordinated; so we all need to work together, have timers going and everything so we're all coordinated and get this piece of orchestration done."
Work,

"In much of society, research means to investigate something you do not know or understand."

"You are an extremely valuable, worthwhile, significant person even though your present circumstances may have you feeling otherwise."

"So, we have to get up and get pumped up for each day."


"The food isn't too bad. It's very different from the food that the astronauts ate in the very early days of the space program."

"We sat around one night and thought that people are going to look back and say, I can't imagine there was a lot of excitement about HER going up!"

"My name was on the list very early after these announcements were made through the newspapers in Europe."

"I was elated, ecstatic and extremely surprised that we were successful."


"Yes, I did feel a special responsibility to be the first American woman in space."

"Our shuttle crew is four people, because we're going to transfer a crew up to station, so all the jobs are divided between four people rather than five or six people. So it's been busy."

"There is no one area of chemical engineering that specifically helped me in my career as an astronaut, it was more the general education in engineering. Also, it was a very difficult and rigorous course. So, it made me strong and resourceful."


"I would have taken whatever hand I was dealt. Space was it."

"Everyone that I've talked to who's been to space has thoroughly enjoyed the experience, and what you often hear them say is: It was great, but we just had to come home."


"Poetry is its own medium; it's very different than writing prose. Poetry can talk in an imagistic sense, it has particular ways of catching an environment."

"Well, it's still a bit uncertain, but I will do the consulting, and I'll see how I can contribute. But I'm sure whatever I do will involve the space program. That's where my passion is."


"Most of our history in space has been communicated in terms of action - what people do, a chronological list of events which have transpired - as opposed to the human experience of having done those things."

"In 1983, NASA invited Canada to fly three payload specialists, in part because we had contributed the robotic arm that is used on the shuttle."


"So most astronauts are astronauts for a couple of years before they are assigned to a flight."

"Our role is to develop techniques that allow us to provide emergency life-saving procedures to injured patients in an extreme, remote environment without the presence of a physician."

"You know, piloting really isn't my hobby. And, it's probably not something I'd do in my spare time if I could do whatever I wanted to do. But, I'll tell you: if you've got to make a living, it's a great way to make a living!"

"Certainly my parents were a huge influence. They always expected the most out of all of us. And expected us to do our very best. I'm thankful to them for allowing me to do what I wanted to do."

"I told them how excited I would be to go into space and how thrilled I was when Alan Shepard made his historic flight, and when John Kennedy announced on the news that the men had landed safely on the moon, and how jealous I was of those men."

"This has been a great experience for me. The first couple of days you don't always feel too well. You adjust to the fluid shifting, how to fly through space without hitting things or anybody else. But then you get in a groove."


"That I learned even as a three year-old that I see this world that is really a mess and I learned to say, this is not me. I am not the one that is messed up. It is out there."

"There was a moth in there, and it still had its wings crumpled up, and it was just starting to pump its wings up. Life continues in lots of places, and life is a magical thing."
Life,
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