Katherine Johnson Quotes

I watched the moon landing as a boy, and I thought that was the most exciting thing ever, going into space, orbiting Earth and exploring other planets. That looked fantastic.

For NASA, space is still a high priority.

America has tossed its cap over the wall of space.

We're going to be focusing our science on things that will take us farther and longer into space. For many of those experiments, the crew members are human guinea pigs, which is fine; that's part of my job. I don't mind being a human guinea pig.

I think a lot of the American people feel more than a little disappointed that the high-water mark for human exploration was 1969. The dream of human space travel has almost died for a lot of people.

NASA is an utterly fascinating place, and the fact that the buildings look so anonymous almost makes it more fascinating. You walk by a generic office-park-looking building, and you have no idea what's going on inside.

Space is going to be commonplace.

I've always been interested in the idea of space exploration. When I was younger it was just a dream, but the theory of rockets being able to travel through space was very much alive. I found it very exciting.

We will certainly see teachers, journalists, artists and poets in space. Whatever it takes to the be the best is what it will take to get you into space.

I've always been interested in space and the idea of exploration in that area since I was a child growing up through the '60s.

We were young, we were pilots, and we were hungry to test the new technology of 'space machines.' And we all wanted to be first.

I think the people who experienced the Apollo missions came away from that experience wondering to themselves, 'When can we get a chance to experience spaceflight?' I've heard that many, many times: that people got into a new career field hoping that they would be able to experience spaceflight.

Life science research can be done on multiple platforms. Since we have a very small number of people flying into space, the more people you have, the better.

I remember the moon landings, and Apollo was the paradigm by which all progress was measured at that time. And I knew that creating a true space-faring civilization was both possible and practical. What I failed to realize was that the effort would fail due to bureaucratic inertia and political apathy.

I used to think about how nice it would be to visit the planets. Of course, I didn't expect to see in my lifetime what has happened. I knew it would happen some day, but it came along faster than I at first thought.

I don't think the space station will ever do anything for exploration. Putting people up there for a year or more is the only way you will get anywhere near the exploration concept.

We'd never have got a chance to go outside and look at the earth if it hadn't been for space exploration and NASA.

There is very little difference between men and women in space.

When 'Apollo 13' appeared as an opportunity and I began to tackle that in as authentic a way as I possibly could, I really became enthralled by the philosophical side of space travel and why we need to explore - what it means to us here on Earth - all of those things. I became a huge proponent.

It was an incredible series, 'From The Earth To The Moon.' All of it's great.

When we meet people who are astronauts or deal in astronomy, it's always really fascinating.

America's love affair with traveling into outer space is deeply entrenched.

I have had the privilege to be a member of many high-performance teams at NASA, both on and off the planet.

I love working at NASA, but the part that has been the most satisfying on a day-to-day basis, hour-to-hour, minute-to-minute, has been working on board the space station. Even if I'm just cleaning the vents in the fans, it all is important.

Looking down the road, space exploration and the benefits it yields - in medicine and information technology - should not be overlooked.