Alan Shepard Quotes

I don't think we're going to build a 50-person spacecraft or a 100-person spacecraft.

Well, the coolest thing I have seen so far, in terms of, like, me being an astronaut and seeing something unusual, was the rendezvous, the docking of a Progress spaceship.

I have long been fond of comparing Workday strategy to the process of sending a rocket to the moon.

The truth is, every single rocket launch off of planet Earth is risky.

So most astronauts getting ready to lift off are excited and very anxious and worried about that explosion - because if something goes wrong in the first seconds of launch, there's not very much you can do.

In 2009 I went up on the space shuttle. I was in space for 16 days and docked at the space station for 11 days. The entire crew did five space walks, of which I was involved with three of them. When you're doing a space walk, you always have a buddy with you. It's a very dangerous environment when you're doing a space walk.

For the last several years and culminating in six months in orbit next year, I've been training for my third space flight. This one is almost in a category completely different than the previous two, specifically to live in on the space station for six months, to command a space ship and to fly a new rocket ship.

In Mars, we've been given a wonderful set of moons... where we can send continuous numbers of people.

As an astronaut, especially during launch, half of the risk of a six-month flight is in the first nine minutes.

I slept just floating in the middle of the flight deck, the upper deck of the space shuttle.

The excitement really didn't start to build until the trailer - which was carrying me, with a space suit with ventilation and all that sort of stuff - pulled up to the launch pad.

Every couple of years, we could dispatch people from Earth to Mars.

Finally my dream came true in that there was a possibility that I could travel to the International Space Station. I've gone through the medicals and the training and now I'm officially, by the Russian Space Federation, a cosmonaut in training.

If we drive down the cost of transportation in space, we can do great things.

If you want to go into space first time on a new vehicle that's never been flown, you want to go with a pro.

After the Shuttle checks out on its two upcoming flights, it will be ready to take larger components up to the International Space Station later this fall.

It takes a few years to prepare for a space mission.

I'd love to go back to space, I don't know any astronaut who doesn't want to.

I'm not going into infinity. I'm going into low earth orbit.

Putting seven people in orbit should not cost more than flying a commercial jet around Earth.

I study orbital dynamics as a hobby. My idea of a good time is sitting down and drawing on that knowledge to imagine a space mission from beginning to end, getting as many details right as I can.

Once you get into space, you can really unleash a lot of creativity, but the launch itself? I have been through all of the creative ways, and believe me, chemical rockets are the best.

I believe you'll see a low Earth orbit space travel business begin.

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.

But every crew that makes it to orbit is lucky. Spaceflight's not easy.