Pete Conrad Quotes

I think both the space shuttle program and the International Space Station program have not really lived up to their expectations.

In 1983, NASA invited Canada to fly three payload specialists, in part because we had contributed the robotic arm that is used on the shuttle.

We have neglected our aerospace program, and I am detecting a lot of bipartisan support to continue that mission.

So everything turned out fine, and we were given the opportunity to go to Washington and be briefed on the project of man in space, and given the opportunity to choose whether we wanted to get involved or not.

With the mission to Mars, the whole world wants to get involved. So we actually have 13 different space agencies from around the world working on the global exploration road map.

And now for Return to Flight, I'm chief of robotics working in the astronaut office in Houston, as a Canadian.

It would be sad if the expertise built up during the 40 years of the U.S. and Russian manned programmes were allowed to dissipate. But abandoning the shuttle, and committing to new launch vehicles and propulsion systems, is actually a prerequisite for a vibrant manned programme.

Our goal is to show that you can develop a robust, safe manned space program and do it at an extremely low cost.

I'm urging NASA to foster the development of what I call 'runway landers.' No, that's not the name of a high stakes gambler from Vegas. It's a type of spacecraft that flies to orbit like the retiring Shuttles but then glides to a landing like an airplane on a runway. Just like the Shuttles do.

I witnessed the building of the Space Shuttle Columbia, the first orbiter to be launched into space.

A lot of these things will fly in later forms on the space station themselves, or a later form of that research will, once they kind of find out some of the basics from flying it on shuttle.

We are not building the space station for science any more than we went to the moon for science, but we got a hell of a lot of good science out of it.

I think even in bad times it's good to keep some money going into research. And that's the purpose of the whole space program. It's not just exploration and going to see how far we can go out into space and keep people alive and bring them back, although exploration certainly has its place.

I'm absolutely compelled for NASA to send international astronauts to Mars to find out if Mars ever harbored life.

Getting to space for satellites is tough. Getting to space with humans aboard is even tougher.

It is only by freeing NASA from routine human transport to low-Earth orbit that we can afford to once again see American astronauts exploring distant worlds.

I'm not in favor of manned spaceflight, because I don't see that it goes anywhere.

If I were part of Gaganyaan, I could have been sure that for the next few years, there would have been a second space mission and a third space mission.

This year-in-space mission was a profound challenge for all involved, and it gave me a unique perspective and a lot of time to reflect on what my next step should be on our continued journey to help further our capabilities in space and on Earth.

Obama's space policy doesn't differ much from George W. Bush's.

I suppose there wasn't a well-worn path into the British space programme because we didn't really have a space programme. Dad was one of the pioneers of it.

I was working as a flight director on the Gemini IX mission, and it seemed almost overnight I was picking up the responsibilities for the Apollo Program.

Getting a team of scientists on Mars could be transformative.

It's pretty amazing to me that we have had a space shuttle program that's lasted for 30 years - for one space shuttle. That's quite an achievement.

There are few aspects of everyday life that aren't touched by the technologies developed for space travel.