Valentina Tereshkova Quotes

After being once in space, I was keen to go back there. But it didn't happen.

Remember, I am not trying to orbit the earth. It is a simple elevator ride for 20 minutes.

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.

When you launch in a rocket, you're not really flying that rocket. You're just sort of hanging on.

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

I would always consider flying in space again, without a question.

I would much rather fly on Soyuz than the shuttle.

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.

I still dream about being on the space station with the feeling of being weightless. The weightlessness is the most amazing, relaxing and natural feeling.

A zero-gravity flight is a first step toward space travel.

When the space shuttle's engines cut off, and you're finally in space, in orbit, weightless... I remember unstrapping from my seat, floating over to the window, and that's when I got my first view of Earth. Just a spectacular view, and a chance to see our planet as a planet.

I've had a chance to fly a lot of different airplanes, but it was nothing like the shuttle ride.

People are genuinely interested about what it's like to experience spaceflight and try to get some of our perspectives on it.

It seems like in the beginning of my flight, the space dreams were rare. And now, almost 150 days into it, the Earth dreams are more of the rare ones.

My first mission was six and a half months. We weren't exactly sure how long it was going to be because I went up and back on the space shuttle, which was dependent on weather for launch and landing.

Gravity is a really heavy force and you don't realize how heavy it is until you haven't felt it for six and a half months.

The first time I went into space was just so much more than you could imagine or prepare yourself for.

I thought I was prepared for space, and it still absolutely defied every expectation and dream. It is an incredible thing to put yourself on a rocket and launch off the planet. It is an amazing thing to see the planet from space. This blue sphere is almost indescribably beautiful.

Anyone that's ever gone to space is always wanting to go back.

The question I always get is, Why didn't you throw Dr. Smith off the Jupiter? I get that all the time.

As someone who flew two space capsules and twice landed in the ocean, I can attest from personal experience how much logistics work is needed to get you home.

One of the jokes on our flight is that, if we have a normal entry day going, the plan is for me... to actually take the orbiter first and fly it for maybe 10 or 15 seconds and then hand it on over to Scooter.

You have seen on TV how hard it is to go up 129,000 feet and how hard it is to come down.

I've always been interested in the idea of space exploration. When I was younger it was just a dream, but the theory of rockets being able to travel through space was very much alive. I found it very exciting.