Space Shuttle Program Quotes

After the loss of Columbia a couple of years ago, I think we were reminded of the risk. All of us, though, have always known that the Space Shuttle is a very risky vehicle, much more risky than even flying airplanes in combat.

Then during the mission itself, I used the space shuttle's robot arm to release a satellite into orbit.

After the Challenger accident, NASA put in a lot of time to improve the safety of the space shuttle to fix the things that had gone wrong.

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

No, I think most astronauts recognize that the space shuttle program is very high-risk, and are prepared for accidents.

I think a lot of people in Washington are extremely suspicious of NASA.

The United States ended the space shuttle program in 2011, after the ISS was complete. We gave up a national treasure forever.

In 1986, the space shuttle Challenger exploded and crashed down to Earth less than two minutes after takeoff. The cause of that crash, it turned out, was an inexpensive rubber O-ring in the booster rocket that had frozen on the launchpad the night before and failed catastrophically moments after takeoff.

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.

I grew up in the 1960s and wanted to become part of the great space exploration effort, but when I graduated from college in 1974, the Apollo program was over, and the country had moved into this pessimistic mode. We had entered the 'age of limits.'

Every shuttle mission's been successful.

The Space Shuttle is the most effective device known to man for destroying dollar bills.

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.

One of the astronauts I came to admire the most is John Young.

As we reflect back upon the tragic loss of Challenger and her brave crew of heroes who were aboard that fateful day, I am reminded that they truly represented the best of us, as they climbed aloft on a plume of propellant gasses, reaching for the stars, to inspire us who were Earthbound.

The space shuttle is a better and safer rocket than it was before the Challenger accident.

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.

My first date was with Endeavour, and my last date is going to be with Endeavour, as far as space shuttles are concerned.

I was selected to be an astronaut on a military program called the Manned Orbiting Laboratory back in '67. That program got cancelled in '69 and NASA ended up taking half of us.

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

You think NASA is going to be cutting edge, but they've got so many buildings that are just left over from the '60s. It's old.

On a standard space shuttle crew, two of the astronauts have a test pilot background - the commander and the pilot.

The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives.

Within NASA, the shuttle is perhaps the least-groundbreaking project. Recall that Apollo was about creating brand-new technologies that did something unprecedented - putting men on the moon. The shuttle is, by comparison, a relic designed to make going into orbit routine.

The Space Shuttle was a great machine. Without it, we would not have been able to build the International Space Station because the parts and modules were delivered by Shuttle crews.