Top 301 Astronaut Quotes & Sayings

I Was so Drunk, I Thought a Tube of Toothpaste Was Astronaut Food.

If my vision was good enough, I'd be an astronaut.

I had always been interested in the space program, and I didn't know if I could be an astronaut like I'd dreamt about when I was a little kid - to me it sounded kind of silly, someone grow up to be an astronaut - but, when I was in my 20s, I thought maybe I can get a job with NASA or a contractor, do something with the space program.

Spoiler alert: I did not become an astronaut.

I always wanted to be an astronaut.

I wanted to be an astronaut when I was a kid. I grew up in Houston. Gordo Cooper was my favorite astronaut.

I don't have to go into outer space to write about an astronaut.

There's a perspective that I've gained as an astronaut that I didn't get from my science activities. In my science activities, I learned by the seat of my pants. Spending 17 years as an astronaut, I learned the NASA formalism of systems engineering as if my life depended on it. Literally.

The hardest thing for me as an astronaut was to improve my swimming skills.

I first told my parents that I wanted to be an astronaut when I was 3 years old.

Becoming an astronaut was a little bit of happenstance for me.

As a kid, I wanted to be an astronaut. And my own passion was that I wanted to be a film director. I realized that being an astronaut was not going to be an option, so I said, "Well, I'm going to be a director and do films in space."

Army astronauts have a very proud legacy in the astronaut program.

It's like if you're an astronaut and you've been to the moon, what do you want to do with the rest of your life?

I'd love to go back to space, I don't know any astronaut who doesn't want to.

My advice for an aspiring astronaut is to really follow your passion. I mean, study something that interests you, but also qualifies you to apply. NASA recruits from a wide variety of backgrounds. I know people who have applied to be an astronaut who ask me, well should I do this or should I do that. And I said, you know, it doesn't matter. The basic requirements are you have to be in good health, and you have to have a good heart, I mean in a technical way, not to be a kind person, well that helps. Study something that you like and do well in it.

I wanted to apply to the astronaut program after the Challenger accident

One thing I probably share with everyone else in the astronaut office is composure.

If I couldn't be an actor, I would only consider being an astronaut, a sea otter, or a gynecologist.

The most important steps that I followed were studying math and science in school. I was always interested in physics and astronomy and chemistry and I continued to study those subjects through high school and college on into graduate school. That's what prepared me for being an astronaut; it actually gave me the qualifications to be selected to be an astronaut.

Well, for me it really wasn't a case of deciding to be an astronaut.

Never in a million years would I have thought I could have been an astronaut candidate.

I wanted to be an astronaut and wanted to go to space camp, but then I found out that I was too short to become an astronaut. My mom really made me believe that if I worked hard enough and if I really wanted to do it, I could do it.

At the age of six, I declared that I wanted to be an astronaut. My mother thought that was just fine, as it would encourage me to learn science, and besides, there really was no chance I would ever actually become an astronaut.

Astronauts cannot pick their nicknames and can only get their nicknames from other astronauts. Any astronaut who tries to give himself a cool nickname will regret it by getting just the opposite from his astronaut friends.

Is there any other job that beats being an astronaut? Who didn't want to be an astronaut? That is my question.

It's a little surprising to me that I'm the first Houstonian to be an astronaut.

So much goes into doing a transplant operation. All the way from preparing the patient, to procuring the donor. It's like being an astronaut. The astronaut gets all the credit, he gets the trip to the moon, but he had nothing to do with the creation of the rocket, or navigating the ship. He's the privileged one who gets to drive to the moon. I feel that way in some of these more difficult operations, like the heart transplant.

Tell your daughters and their daughters that if they want to be a firewoman, they can be a firewoman. If they want to be an astronaut, they can be an astronaut. If they want to run their own business or run for president, they can do whatever they put their mind to.

I was a naval officer and aviator. I tested airplanes and got selected to be an astronaut later on.

For me, the passion of being an astronaut was ignited at an early age. I have this recollection of looking at a picture of the Apollo program - Neil Armstrong standing on the Moon - then looking at the night sky and realizing that, right where I was looking, people stood and looked back at the Earth. Even as a fairly young child, that was not lost on me, and it inspired me to pursue my dream. I didn't know if I would ever become an astronaut, of course, and the odds are not in your favour, but I just kept it in the back of my mind and tried to keep those options open.

I've secretly always wanted to be an astronaut.

I think it's reasonable: you can own your nerd credibility when you're an astronaut.

I actually wanted to be an astronaut, but I don't have a mathematical brain.

I'd have given my right eye to be an astronaut.

Rugby has surprisingly helped me a lot as an astronaut and when I'm training in the space suit.

I never declared I wanted to be an astronaut, as I considered that was presumptuous.

In the '60s astronauts were rockstars. Everyone wanted to be an astronaut.

I didn't really decide that I wanted to be an astronaut for sure until the end of college.

From as young as I can remember, I wanted to be - in order - an astronaut, a geologist, and a biologist.

I grew up in Spokane, Washington, and I can't recall ever not wanting to be an astronaut.

The odds of becoming a NASA astronaut - you have a better chance of getting hit by lightning.

It so happened that my goals kind of matched my career progression toward becoming an astronaut.

Every astronaut flew into space for a living. But while NASA has not solved the security problems, I would not put me back into a shuttle - and no other astronaut. The confidence is shaken.

I grew up in Greeley, Colorado, in a house without a television set. I was a very nerdy kid: I used to play 'astronaut' and eat bouillon as astronaut food. We also had tons of books.

In the astronaut business - the shuttle is a very complicated vehicle; it's the most complicated flying machine ever built. And in the astronaut business, we have a saying, which is, 'There is no problem so bad that you can't make it worse.'

I wasn’t destined to be an astronaut. I had to turn myself into one.

I wanted to be a secret agent and an astronaut, preferably at the same time.

It doesn't matter if you want to be a teacher, an astronaut, or a reggaeton singer, you need to study.

One peculiarity of an astronaut's job is that we do everything in public. Also, you don't want to make a mistake. In the best case, it's an embarrassment, in the worst, death. That's also part of the training. They teach you to think like an astronaut, like they do with a pilot, a military man, a fireman. You dissociate in your mind the gravity of the consequences of your mistake.

Harriet Tubman was an astronaut, traversing the south to the north by navigating the stars.

The opportunities to become an astronaut in Canada were far and few.

I like the fact that, as an actor, one day I can be the president. I can be an astronaut.

What guy didn't want to be an astronaut growing up?

It is an incredible treat and certainly one of the highlights of any astronaut's career to do a spacewalk.

I loved being a test pilot, and so being an astronaut was - was not my end point in, you know, either I achieved success by being an astronaut, or if I don't get picked, I'm not successful. I loved my career as a pilot, and it was a bonus to be selected as an astronaut.

My obsession with outer space is my way of being different. I make astronaut music. It takes an astronaut so long to get to space - that's how long it takes to catch up on my music.

Being an astronaut, there are not a lot of things that have really shocked me in my life.

When I became an astronaut, I was an engineer.

I wouldn't oppose a women's astronaut training program; I just see no requirement for it.