"The real pleasure was having the chance to enjoy being weightless, and the ot..."
"The real pleasure was having the chance to enjoy being weightless, and the other was to spend some time looking out at this beautiful Earth that we're all lucky to inhabit."
"You are an extremely valuable, worthwhile, significant person even though your present circumstances may have you feeling otherwise."
"The conquest of space is not merely a technological project of interest to a handful of select scientists and specialists, valuable though that research and information may be."
"I think that space exploration as a broad activity is the most important things that humans can do. I've always found it fascinating, interesting, compelling, and I have a drive to go out into space."
"Do something because you really want to do it. If you're doing it just for the goal and don't enjoy the path, then I think you're cheating yourself."
"The president felt that it was important to send an ordinary citizen to experience the excitement of space travel as a representative for all Americans."
"I am humbled and excited by new opportunities for me to support and share the amazing work NASA is doing to help us travel farther into the solar system and work with the next generation of science and technology leaders."
"I have been blessed with some really special crewmates. Being able to be a really integral member of the team, no matter what role I was in, was truly special."
"Their spirituality was in nature, even though Emerson was a preacher on the pulpit, he ended up going out into nature for direct, face-to-face communication with God, if you want to call all of this creation part of God."
"The rocket had worked perfectly, and all I had to do was survive the reentry forces. You do it all, in a flight like that, in a rather short period of time, just 16 minutes as a matter of fact."
"Me personally - not something to do with NASA - I do think there is a God, and it's somebody looking out for us and trying to guide us to live a very happy, productive life. There is further meaning. That's just my thought."
"I think the Space Shuttle is worth one billion dollars a launch. I think that it is worth two billion dollars for what it does. I think the Shuttle is worth it for the work it does."
"Life outside of Earth is probably going to be really hard to find."
"I think a benefit is that we try to put it up in a short time. From the decision to do this mission until we fly, it's six months and one week or so, so it's a very short time."
"Viewing the earth from above gives you this sense of how special the planet is that we live on."
"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."
"It's just this beautiful laboratory in space, and it's doing a lot of really cool things. So being up there and just being able to fly through that big station one more time and do some experiments while you're up there and get that view out of the cupola... priceless."
"The stars don't look bigger, but they do look brighter."
"I stayed in the astronaut program until 1993. People ask me why I left. I thought I had a lot of things to contribute that would be difficult to do if I stayed. I thought I could have a stronger voice as an advocate for space exploration. So I ended up starting my own technology consulting company."
"I see Vostok-6 quite often in the centre for cosmonaut training. And every time I pass it by, I stroke it and say, 'My lovely one, my best and most beautiful friend, my best and most beautiful man.'"
"Space exploration has taken a tremendous technological leap. India as a developing nation has been recognized globally for how it has economized its missions, which have been comparatively low-cost compared with other countries."
"Now you're coming back to Earth, and things are getting more and more dynamic."
"The only time I had what you would call life-threatening fear was when I was on the Moon. Towards the end of our stay, we got excited and we were going to do the high jump, and I jumped and fell over backwards. That was a scary time, because if the backpack got broken, I would have had it. But everything held together."
"I hope we don't export conflict from this planet into the others. None of the paradigms that define us here on earth - the borders, the parochialism, the divide, should mar our presence in space."
"No aeroplane you've ever gotten into had less than thousands of flights before they took their first passenger. Because vehicles are unsafe at first."
