Kathleen Rubins Quotes

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

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

Then, much later, my next dream was to become an astronaut, and I was fortunate to realize that dream, also.

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

I saw this movie 'The Right Stuff' when I was in college, and it really rekindled my interest in being an astronaut. I started taking those steps, and then I realized it would be the chance of a lifetime. It would be a dream life: not just a job, but the whole life.

I can't think of anything specific growing up that pointed me toward NASA at all. I was interested in the Moon landings just about the same as everyone else of my generation. But I never really thought about being an astronaut or working in space myself.

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

Two months after I got out of test pilot school, I saw an advert that said NASA was recruiting more astronauts. The best job you could have as a test pilot was being an astronaut, so I volunteered.

So most astronauts are astronauts for a couple of years before they are assigned to a flight.

To become an astronaut, someone has to have a dream of his own to do something that he or she has always wanted to do, then commit himself to making that dream come true.

And, so I set my goals on astronaut because, as a military aviator, it was, I considered that to be about the peak of a flying career.

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

By my mid-30s, I just thought, 'This is not going to happen. I am never going to become an astronaut in the U.K.'

Spoiler alert: I did not become an astronaut.

It took me a long time to get selected as an astronaut. In fact, I applied for 20 years before I was selected.

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

I was only a hero by default. The flights were few and far between. There weren't that many astronauts. The moon flights were so interesting and exciting.

NASA has never had a problem finding capable people to be astronauts. NASA's problem was, and still is, finding ways to cut the list of capable applicants down to a manageable length.

Fortunately, I got called down to NASA for an interview. And one thing led to the next, and one day I got that call. I've been here about seven years now and am really enjoying it.

I don't know any astronauts. There are a lot of people who say they want to be comedians.

Not until the space shuttle started flying did NASA concede that some astronauts didn't have to be fast-jet pilots. And at that point, sure enough, women started becoming astronauts.

I believe that there will be women astronauts sometime just as there are women airplane pilots.

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.

Most astronauts are very down-to-earth people. Many of us, three-quarters, have an engineering degree, and we have a very Cartesian, rational approach to things.

When I went to Test Pilot School, that's when we came to Johnson Space Center. And I ended up seeing John Young and listening to him talk and getting a positive influence from him.