Gwynne Shotwell Quotes

Truth be told, I'm much more comfortable in a pair of hiking boots or with a rack of climbing gear than in front of a laptop.

Just about every weekend when I was growing up, we would throw rods and rifles and tents and shovels and pickaxes into the back of the truck and then head off to the side of a mountain or the bottom of a canyon. Hiking, fishing, hunting, rock-hounding: this is how my parents passed the time.

What are you going to do with astronauts who first reach the surface of Mars and then turn around and rocket back home-ward? What are they going to do, write their memoirs? Would they go again? Having them repeat the voyage, in my view, is dim-witted. Why don't they stay there on Mars?

I'm a camper. I love being out in the wilderness.

I just can't grasp the concept of sleeping outside with insects when I have a beautiful home with a really comfy bed!

I have my mountain man moments like hiking in the woods.

I used to beg my mom to let me put a real bed out in forest so I could lie there and listen to the sounds of the forest while still having all the comforts of home.

Going to Mars would make NASA great again.

I encourage everybody to hop on Google and type in 'national park' in whatever state they live in and see the beauty that lies in their own backyard. It's that simple.

I think the curiosity of mankind, that we want something unknown. Like, 500 years ago, humankind wanted to know what the other side of the ocean is, and it was a very risky project, and then we decided that probably we can fly; let's fly higher. And now we're flying space station, and still it's not enough for us: we want to know what's beyond.

As you begin to create more destinations, that will naturally create a stronger economic pipeline for space. And just as we have been the leader of commercial air travel for the first century, as we look to the second century of aviation, I would expect Boeing to be the leader in both air and space travel.

If there's going to be the development of a commercial space economy, whatever it is, shouldn't you do your exploration to prepare a path for what's going to come next?

Support space-resource and industrial infrastructure. Multibillion-dollar satellites or voyagers to Mars and beyond, if we don't live off the land, we will always only be visitors or wire stringers in territories we do not inhabit or control.

Space is big. The whole point of the frontier is that we go there to do new things in new places - not one place, and not one thing, but all of the above.

Each time these pioneers expanded into new realms, they discovered the old ways wouldn't work. Whenever a new domain was inhabited by humans, old survival patterns were left behind and new patterns created.

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 am very inspired by the exploration of space via private means.

It's not a matter of if we're going to go to Mars, it's a matter of when.

One enjoyable consequence of being in the Scouts was that, at the start of each new school year, we had to camp out in tents on the school playing fields.

In terms of goals for NASA before I die, we need to be living on Mars. And I might not live that long, so they better get on with it!

I was always with my dad and my brother. I know that if you can't keep up, you get left behind. So you learn to pull your weight. You learn to not be the one that's causing the problems, whether we're camping, where I'd better be the one to help put up the tent.

Gunther and I always shared the work. Each of us carried his own sleeping bag and tent, and porters carried the rest, until the highest camp, when we were on our own. Nobody helped us up there.

There are so many fun places to hike.

We go as humans into space to expand the domain of humanity and life - not robots. And as we do, we will get more science because when you are living somewhere, you obviously learn more about it. NASA and the government must first get out of the way and then support us as we open the frontier.

The ride to orbit was impressive, as it always is. But once I got on board the space station, it really felt like I was visiting an old home; it felt very comfortable.