Astronaut Sayings and Quotes

Below you will find our collection of inspirational, wise, and humorous old astronaut quotes, astronaut sayings, and astronaut proverbs, collected over the years from a variety of sources.

Some astronauts describe the routine flushing of urine into space, where the freezing temperatures turn the droplets into a cloud of bright, drifting crystals, as being among the most amazing sights they saw on an entire voyage. Eugene Cernan
Astronauts are very professional and when they're preparing for launch, they prepare for it as the most serious endeavor of our lives. Ellen Ochoa
Our astronauts, when they go orbiting around the earth, they actually come back slightly younger than a twin that they would have on the planet Earth who was stationary. This is called the twin paradox. Michio Kaku
When many astronauts go to space, they see the insignificant size of the earth and vastness of space, and they become very religious, because they have seen the Signs of Allah. Cat Stevens
We're all astronauts, really, aren't we; interstellar astronauts, travelling so far into the blackness we can never return. S.K. Tremayne
To become an astronaut is not a question of being the best at something or things coming easy to you, but it's being a person that can work with others and not give up. And, for me, that was part of it too. Michael J Massimino
It's very dangerous to put astronauts on a moon base where there's radiation, solar flares and micro meteorites. It'd be much better to put robots on the moon and have them mentally connected to astronauts on the Earth. Michio Kaku
Any astronaut can tell you you've got to do everything you can to learn about your life support system and then do everything you can to take care of it. Sylvia Earle
As an astronaut, you have a very defined set of tasks to do. Those tasks may require you to work 60, 70 or 80 hours a week. Mae Jemison
Earth is a small town with many neighborhoods in a very big universe. Ron Garan
The majority of astronauts have to change their eyeglasses while in space. They bring eyeglasses with them and typically change a few months into the mission. Scott Kelly
Space is for everybody. It's not just for a few people in science or math, or for a select group of astronauts. That's our new frontier out there, and it's everybody's business to know about space. Christa McAuliffe
Astronauts are like these mythic legends, but really, they are just regular people, people who wear chinos. Mary Roach
Astronauts cannot pick their nicknames and can only get their nicknames from other astronauts. Any astronaut who tries to give himself a cool nickname will regret it by getting just the opposite from his astronaut friends. Michael J. Massimino
Every single astronaut who has come back from space comes back determined to do more to protect it. Richard Branson
The pressure suit helps if something goes wrong during launch or re-entry astronauts have a way to parachute off the shuttle. The suits protect you from loss of pressure in case of emergency. Sally Ride
This is one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind. Neil Armstrong
As an astronaut, especially during launch, half of the risk of a six-month flight is in the first nine minutes. Chris Hadfield
Astronauts were not the impulsive daredevils so dear to the stereopticonloving public. They couldn't afford to be. The hazards of the profession required an infinite capacity for cautious, contemplative thought. Eric Frank Russell
Astronauts are not superhuman. They lead ordinary lives and have varied personalities. Buzz Aldrin
Here men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the Moon July 1969, A.D. We came in peace for all mankind. Neil Armstrong
Astronauts have been stuck in low-Earth orbit, boldly going nowhere. American attempts to kick-start a new phase of lunar exploration have stalled amid the realisation that NASA's budget is too small for the job. Paul Davies
Astronauts are inherently insane. And really noble. Andy Weir
We came all this way to explore the Moon, and the most important thing is that we discovered the Earth. William Anders
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. Sally Ride
As an astronaut, when you're getting ready to go out of that hatch, you know that's the pinnacle of both your career and your life. The view completely blows you away. The real challenge is getting past the excitement and getting focused and down to work. Thomas Marshburn
Astronauts living on the International Space Station will soon be getting their drinking water from a new system that recycles their urine into drinkable water. Said one Space Station astronaut, 'It would have been nice to get a heads-up on that before we got here. Seth Meyers
Everybody knows what the moon is, everybody knows what this decade is, and everybody can tell a live astronaut who returned from the moon from one who didn't Wernher von Braun
Some astronauts sleep in sort of beds compartments that you can open up and crawl into and then close up, almost like a little bedroom. Sally Ride
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. Alan Shepard
If I were an astronaut, I'd be one of the backup pilots. The minute they tried to put me in a spaceship, would I back up! Robert Orben
Isn't it amazing? We go all the way to the moon to pick up rocks—and here on Earth, we don't even pick up beer bottles! Robert Orben
I'm so chicken, you ain't gonna see me on the moon until I can get there in something civilized— like an elevator! Robert Orben
I am an astronaut of boxing. Joe Louis and Dempsey were just jet pilots. I'm in a world of my own. Muhammad Ali
Science, enabled by engineering, empowered by NASA, tells us not only that we are in the universe but that the universe is in us. And for me, that sense of belonging elevates, not denigrates, the ego. Neil de Grasse Tyson
Mankind will not remain on Earth forever, but in its quest for light and space will at first timidly penetrate beyond the confines of the atmosphere, and later will conquer for itself all the space near the sun. Konstantin E. Tsiolkovsky
It is good to renew one's wonder, space travel once again made children of us all. Ray Bradburry
The effort to understand the universe is one of the very few things that lifts human life a little above the level of farce and gives it some of the grace of tragedy. Steven Weinberg
If you wish to make an apple pie from the scratch, you must first invent the universe Carl Sagan
The surface is fine and powdery. I can kick it up loosely with my toe. It does adhere in fine layers, like powdered charcoal, to the sole and sides of my boots. I only go in small fraction of an inch, maybe an eighth of an inch, but I can see the footprints of my boots and the treads in the fine, sandy particles. There seems to be no difficulty in moving around, as we suspected. Neil Armstrong
Bill Kaysing is wacky. His position makes me feel angry. We spent a lot of time getting ready to go to the moon. We spent a lot of money, we took great risks, and it's something everybody in the country ought to be proud of. Jim Lovell
We were on the dark side of the earth when we started to see outside this window the soft pink glow, which is a lot a little angry ions out there growing very fast. We were hitting them very fast. Robert Crippen
At no time when the astronauts were in space were they alone; there was a constant surveillance by UFOs. Scott Carpenter
There were twists, risks, brave astronauts stayed 'cool', / Back in the Earth's atmosphere parachutes slowed their motion, / Drifting down steadily into the Pacific Ocean, / Heroes in spacesuits floating on waves. Glenn Lumb
Everyone watched with a solemn obsession, / Rooting for the astronauts about to descend / The ladder from the capsule, bring an end / To an overdue achievement happening soon, / A human setting foot on the surface of the moon. Glenn Lumb
I'd like to be an astronaut and travel deep in space, / To see the earth and planets, the moon too, with its face. Wallace Dean LaBenne
He wanted to be / An astronaut when / He grew up; / To go far and / Visit every star. / But then he found / Out he was / Afraid of heights; / It totally turned / Out his lights. / Now he gets in / Lots of fights, / And stays awake / Most nights. / Usually he just sits / Around and writes. Anonimo Magnifico
I wish I was an astronaut, / I want to see the stars collide, / Watch the planets in the sky. Megan
Hello a year in Space, hello cognitive decline. Steven Magee
Suicide is as easy as riding a rocket into Heaven. Steven Magee
Rockets are the most dangerous form of transportation. Steven Magee
The most dangerous job by far in the USA is an astronaut. Steven Magee
In middle age, I decided to give up on my dream of being an astronaut and follow my second, to be a writer. Also, I heard there was no smoking in the space station. Michael Kroft
I must admit, maybe I am a piece of history after all. Shepard
Now you're coming back to Earth, and things are getting more and more dynamic. Carey
NASA was going to pick a public school teacher to go into space, observe and make a journal about the space flight, and I am a teacher who always dreamed of going up into space. McAuliffe
I'm looking forward to coming back, back to Earth, the landing, the views. Carey
I cannot join the space program and restart my life as an astronaut, but this opportunity to connect my abilities as an educator with my interests in history and space is a unique opportunity to fulfill my early fantasies. McAuliffe
What everyone in the astronaut corps shares in common is not gender or ethnic background, but the motivation, perseverance, and desire - the desire to participate in a voyage of discovery. Ochoa
It's a vast, lonely, forbidding expanse of nothing rather like clouds and clouds of pumice stone. And it certainly does not appear to be a very inviting place to live or work. Borman