Astronauts Quotations

It would be great some day to have astronauts in a rover on Mars. But just about anyone except an oil company executive would say its more important to have 50 million solar powered vehicles in the United States.

So one thing that I want to do is to make people realize that astronauts in general are very normal people. They are down to Earth, so to speak. I know it sounds contradictive, but we are very normal people. We are very normal people with a fantastic privilege and opportunity to do something that is extraordinary.

Nothing focuses your mind quite like flying a jet. That's one reason NASA requires that astronauts fly T-38s: it forces us to concentrate and prioritize in some of the same ways we need to in a rocket ship.

And not only that but... when the station is completed, there will be an international crew made of astronauts coming from different cultural experiences, speaking different languages, but working together for a common goal.

For years, I longed to hear Armstrong describe what it was like to contemplate Earth from 238,900 miles away. Former Space Center director George Abbey once told me that many NASA astronauts felt that looking at Earth was akin to a religious experience.

Since there always has to be a certain number of astronauts manning the station at all times, one of the main aspects of the mission was to transport a new team to the station and bring back some members of the previous team back to Earth.

We want to make sure we get living astronauts to the surface of Mars.

In 1960-61, a small group of female pilots went through many of the same medical tests as the Mercury astronauts and scored very well on them - in fact, better than some of the astronauts did.

By 1973, we had a space station, the Skylab, and we had multiple probes going up to planets. So, all this wonderful stuff happened in 10 to 15 years. About that time, there should have been enormous initiatives to make it affordable for people to fly in space, not just a handful of trained NASA astronauts and Russian cosmonauts.

Throughout history, when societies have been faced with big challenges, they've put their best people on them. During the Space Race, American and Russian scientists, engineers, astronauts and cosmonauts pushed the bounds of what was possible and landed men on the moon.

On my watch, I've been privileged to peer into the future of dynamic citizen astronauts routinely flying to and from the heavens.

If we hit those requirements, no longer will just professional cosmonauts and astronauts from the various space agencies be able to reach the ISS, but also researchers. Only proper researchers will be able to conduct space science experiments with the proper amount of exactitude.

Fossil finding will be a very difficult job on Mars. I don't think robotic missions will do it. It will take astronauts and even then it will be a tough job.

There is an increased chance of blackouts due to magnetic currents on the power grids. This also creates more hazards for astronauts traveling through space.

Our astronauts are safely back home, and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is safely on its way to Mars.

Recently people put together this panorama from the moon and you can see as if you are turning 360 degrees around. And so there's this wow factor. You can look as if you were standing on the moon and see what the astronauts saw.

Reliability index of the rocket has been improved to 0.97 and the safety index of astronauts to 0.997.

Orbital capsule is the place for astronauts to live and work during their space flight.

NASA is plodding along doing what it's been doing for decades, ... Astronauts have been flying up there for 17-18 years, and it's hard to see what they've accomplished.

NASA appreciates the efforts of Congress to resolve restrictions placed on our partnership with Russia. Congress' action helps to ensure the continuous presence of U.S. astronauts on the International Space Station.

Mars missions will require up to three years in reduced gravity, so we need to make sure astronauts can not only survive but thrive as they move outward to explore this new world.

Manned spaceflight has lost its glamour - understandably so, because it hardly seems inspiring, 40 years after Apollo, for astronauts merely to circle the Earth in the space shuttle and the International Space Station.

The aim is to enhance among our youths the understanding of our country's aerospace technology development and enable them to learn from the scientists and astronauts the spirit of perseverance.

While we've taken seeds into space, and astronauts on the International Space Station have eaten lettuce they've grown, we haven't produced fruit in space, so we can't pollinate something.

We've lost 14 astronauts and $5 billion in hardware with upgrades,

Those dreams are carried by the families of those astronauts who, even in grief, have urged that America go on with our space program,

We are kind of the sport utility vehicle in this thing. (Our) job is to get the astronauts off the surface of the Earth. The fun stuff happens when you get to the lunar surface.

The data that we're going to gather is key to predicting solar activity and how that affects life on Earth and astronauts in space.

What if we do go to some other planet, discover it has life, and then not be able to get the baby snakes, or whatever they are, deathworms probably, out of the capsule, and then rather than sacrificing themselves and not coming back, the astronauts bring back the ultimate in irritating apartment pests. In 2106, people will be complaining about having deathworms in their bread.

Though it is extremely important for astronauts to be well-rested and alert in space, previous studies have shown that this is not always the case. We are proud that our technology will help the University of Limerick and the ESA to address this problem.

Ben Affleck (who plays A.J. Frost) and I got to actually go into the neutral buoyancy tank in actual $10 million spacesuits the astronauts wear in outer space, and that was pretty interesting,

The space station was sold to Congress for decades as a lab to do this kind of broad-based research. Now they've started gutting the station just when it is at the point of being able to do all things it was supposed to do. That leaves the purpose of the space station as something for astronauts to fix.

Now I know how the astronauts must feel. Maybe I helped them a little bit in the future, but they helped me a lot more.

This is a tragic day for the families of the astronauts and a tragic day for science,

They struck us as articulate, capable. These kids wanted to be doctors and nurses and engineers and astronauts and then they hit the schoolhouse door and they're confronted with an environment which is not inspiring, not engaging and often disorderly and unsafe.

There's a ham rig on the ISS, and the astronauts love talking to students when they pass over schools.

Every one of today's smartphones has thousands of times more processing power than the computers that guided astronauts to the moon.

The seven astronauts on board were accomplished women and men of great courage who put their extraordinary skills and knowledge to the service of humankind,

Not until the space shuttle started flying did NASA concede that some astronauts didn't have to be fast-jet pilots. And at that point, sure enough, women started becoming astronauts.

If you read about the astronauts who went to the moon - the 12 who walked on it, and the others who orbited - all suffered serious mental trauma of one kind or another.

I submitted my name and after about a six-month competition was lucky enough to be chosen as one of the first six astronauts in Canada.

But, I have to tell you that, astronauts, rookie astronauts after they land, they say that they found the training to be more than adequate.

I am not a brave man... I do not have the right stuff. Astronauts are really a cut above.

The images of Earth's delicate biosphere, contrasting with the sterile moonscape where the astronauts left their footsteps, have become iconic for environmentalists: these may indeed be the Apollo programme's most enduring legacy.

The desire to explore has really always been a part of the American spirit and Mars is a new frontier. Its a place where you could someday send astronauts to do that kind of exploration.

We share this pain with all of the people of our country. This is truly a national loss. Nineteen years ago, almost to the day, we lost three astronauts in a terrible accident on the ground. But we've never lost an astronaut in flight. We've never had a tragedy like this.

Funding for the original manned Voyager Mars Program was scratched in 1968, before humans had gotten out of Low Earth Orbit. Mid-'60s plans for a Venus fly-by with astronauts actually flying by it met the same fate.