Joss Whedon Quotes

Rocket science is tough, and rockets have a way of failing.

It was a unique childhood, to say the least. My father was born in Patiala to refugee parents and was a part of the Indian Air Force. The talented few amongst the Air Force pilots are made test pilots. Test pilots are best suited to look at the space programme as they are trained to expect the unexpected.

As a member of the House Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics, I am a firm believer in the American space program.

In 1960-61, a small group of female pilots went through many of the same medical tests as the Mercury astronauts and scored very well on them - in fact, better than some of the astronauts did.

The most impressive airplane ever, I believe, was designed only a dozen years after the first operational jet. Stayed in service till it was too rusty to fly, taken out of service. We retreated in '98 back to something that was developed in '56. What? The most impressive spaceship ever, I believe, was a Grumman Lunar Lander.

Then there was the challenge to keep doing better and better, to fly the best test flight that anybody had ever flown. That led to my being recognized as one of the more experienced test pilots, and that led to the astronaut business.

I left Aerospace because I wanted to go build, and put spacecraft together.

Nothing focuses your mind quite like flying a jet. That's one reason NASA requires that astronauts fly T-38s: it forces us to concentrate and prioritize in some of the same ways we need to in a rocket ship.

NASA has spin-offs, and it's a huge and very impressive list, including accurate and affordable LASIK eye surgery.

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 do not remember how it got into my head to make the first calculations related to rocket. It seems to me the first seeds were planted by famous fantaseour, J. Verne.

My first dream as a child was to become a pilot. My second dream was to become an astronomer, and I pursued in parallel efforts and studies in these two areas.

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.

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

The fact that the great scientist believed in flying machines was the one thing that encouraged us to begin our studies.

By day, I'm a venture capitalist. On weekends, I love rockets.

Growing up in the 1960s, I can't remember a time when I wasn't fascinated by airplanes and rockets.

I was a naval officer and aviator. I tested airplanes and got selected to be an astronaut later on.

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.

My dad worked at NASA his whole career; he's a research scientist.

After I graduated Star City school, I entered to the Tambov Military School of Pilots because I really wanted to be a pilot, and in Russia, it's one of the steps of how you make a career as a cosmonaut. You have to be a military pilot or an engineer.

All astronauts, even civilians like me without pilot experience, have to learn how to co-pilot a jet called a T-38.

I thought that NASA didn't take biologists and so nothing would come of it. But I knew I would regret it if I did not apply.

If you want more kids to become engineers in space, travellers, and pilots, then you have to expose them to those types of careers.

On the first flight test of any spacecraft, you're going to find surprises.