Michael J. Massimino Quotes

I want to get to the moon. I want to go to Mars.

When I saw the Earth from above, personally, as a spacecraft operator, it certainly reinforced and drove home the fact that there's one place where we can live right now.

We are at the moment looking at space as something to be entered by the tremendous thrust of a rocket because that is the attitude of attacking the unknown. And that causes us not to realize that we are already on the most magnificently equipped spaceship, which could hardly be improved upon. It has got a source of temperature and energy just at the right distance from it. It's beautifully equipped with oxygen, with food supplies, with all kinds of delightful things to do while on the journey.... and it's traveling through space at a colossal speed... and it's called the planet Earth.

The views of the Earth are really beautiful. If you've ever seen a space IMAX movie, that's really what it looks like. I wish I'd had more time just to sit and look out the window with a map, but our science program kept us very busy in the lab most of the time.

Whenever I gaze up at the moon, I feel like I'm on a time machine. I am back to that precious pinpoint of time, standing on the foreboding - yet beautiful - Sea of Tranquility. I could see our shining blue planet Earth poised in the darkness of space.

Unless you have manned [space] travel, you don't stir the imagination of people.

… conquering space …

I'd love to jump in a spaceship and shoot myself to the moon, where I'll paint the word 'Love.' So when people step outside before they go to bed and look up to see it, they'll just dream of love.

No matter what your age, gender, politics, nationality, social or financial standing, every single person inhabiting the planet Earth has the same reaction to him: 'Holy crap, Buzz Aldrin, you went to the moon!'

I'm looking forward to getting to space, looking back to earth out the copula window. I think all of it is going to be a completely new experience that I can't quite predict.

I am a passenger on the spaceship Earth.

I can't imagine anywhere I'd rather be than outside the space shuttle in my space suit next to the Hubble Space Telescope.

How can you say that Neil Armstrong went up to the moon in a little spaceship just for the craic but another planet can't send someone here?

Walking in space is absolutely the most exhilarating part of a mission. The view is just incredible.

Here we were, the only seven humans in space, repairing a telescope whose only purpose is to enrich the minds of people on planet Earth and increase our understanding of the workings of the universe. I can think of no better peaceful use of space for all humankind.

They say that in space, nobody can hear you scream. The first time I stepped out of the airlock, I was ready to scream - not because I was scared but because I was so excited to see the Earth below me.

Spoiler alert: I did not become an astronaut.

When Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon for the first time and said the famous words, 'That's one small step for a man; one giant leap for mankind,' he was talking about all of us. Men and women.

Exploration of closer planets will continue. Only after he exhausts all the resources here on earth will man go further ahead, which is when interplanetary travel may take place.

In order to be stimulated or moved in the future, we probably have to go into space and look at our world from there.

You need nerves of steel if climbing aboard a rocket is your career path.

Obviously I'd like NASA to follow their charter - the exploration of our solar system and beyond. I'd like to see people someday go to Mars.

I've always been into things like exploring and science on the frontiers. I had pictures of space up in my room way back in middle school, right next to the boy band posters!

The first time I went into space was just so much more than you could imagine or prepare yourself for.

I haven't the slightest wish to get in a rocket and zoom through the stratosphere.