“It’s like being a bird, maybe, the perspective of flying over the Earth.”
― Peggy Whitson
“We want people to continue learning new things about what space does to the human body. It’s important for us to understand that and make sure when we get ready to fly to Mars that we are ready for what we’re going to be exposed to.”
― Peggy Whitson
“Know what it is that drives you – motivates you – and pursue it. Endeavor to work to make it happen.”
― Peggy Whitson
“I think, just philosophically, we’re made to explore.”
― Peggy Whitson
“I think the biggest advice that I could give people is to actually try and live beyond your dreams by pushing yourself, challenging yourself to do things a little bit outside of your comfort zone.”
― Peggy Whitson
“I like to say I’m determined; some people would call it stubborn. It depends on your perspective.”
― Peggy Whitson
“Find your passion. Because with that passion, you can do anything.”
― Peggy Whitson
“You need to live a little bit outside your comfort zone because you can be even more than you dream of.”
― Peggy Whitson
“There is a potential to be a big explosion of what spaceflight is gonna mean to just an everyday person in the near future. I think it’s very hopeful for our young people: all the exciting things that they could be doing in the future relative to space and space exploration.”
― Peggy Whitson
“Work ethic is probably my No. 1 value and No. 1 attribute.”
― Peggy Whitson
“I would certainly encourage young people to pursue their dreams. It isn’t always an easy path, but it’s worth going after. And I figure if a farmer’s daughter from Iowa can become an astronaut, you can be just about anything you want to be.”
― Peggy Whitson
“In space for a short time, I think most people could survive that. If you’re sending an average person who’s healthy for a short period of time, I think that’s quite doable.”
― Peggy Whitson
“I honestly do think that it is critical that we are continuously breaking records, because that represents us moving forward in exploration.”
― Peggy Whitson
“Breaking records has never been my goal. I think it’s important that we’re continually pushing our limits and showing that we can extend beyond what we have done before.”
― Peggy Whitson
“I started out as a farm girl in Iowa, and I dreamed of being an astronaut and an explorer. And I made it.”
― Peggy Whitson
“Everything every day here on Earth is based on gravity, and you don’t realize it until you don’t have it anymore.”
― Peggy Whitson
“Space flight’s good for age; I have a lot less wrinkles up here. It’s a good place to be as you get older.”
― Peggy Whitson
“To be able to float and move around and, pretty much effortlessly, do whatever you want with your body in space is pretty amazing.”
― Peggy Whitson
“I know the first female astronauts selected were definitely an inspiration to me, and so maybe I will be a role model.”
― Peggy Whitson
“After floating for nine and a half months in space, gravity is not your friend.”
― Peggy Whitson
“I have been blessed with some really special crewmates. Being able to be a really integral member of the team, no matter what role I was in, was truly special.”
― Peggy Whitson
“I am not sure what the future holds for me personally, but I envision myself continuing to work on spaceflight programs.”
― Peggy Whitson
“My desire to contribute to the spaceflight team as we move forward in our exploration of space has only increased over the years.”
― Peggy Whitson
“I was inspired by the men who walked on the moon. It really was my inspiration, I think, you know, as a kid of 9 years old – I know I’m dating myself, but – I thought, ‘What a cool job!’”
― Peggy Whitson
“I knew I wanted to be a part of NASA in any case, and so I chose my goals in education to be consistent with working at NASA even as, you know, a scientist.”
― Peggy Whitson
“I came from Iowa, south central Iowa. It was a very rural area. I saw a lot more hogs growing up than I saw people.”
― Peggy Whitson
“My undergraduate, I double-majored in biology and chemistry. Biology was kind of my love.”
― Peggy Whitson
“I would love to set foot on another planet – lunar or Mars or somewhere.”
― Peggy Whitson
“Life in zero gravity is hard to simulate. We practice on the ground what we call ‘the day in the life’ simulations, but it’s just practicing some of the tests. It can’t prepare you for the fact that all of your tools float if you don’t pay attention to where they are! If you don’t Velcro things down, they’re gonna float away.”
― Peggy Whitson
“Here, in low earth orbit, we’re going around the earth, so we can actually use an Internet protocol phone because we have the appropriate satellites that can get those bandwidths.”
― Peggy Whitson
“I think probably the discoveries made by Hubble Space Telescope have been very dramatic, very amazing.”
― Peggy Whitson
“In terms of goals for NASA before I die, we need to be living on Mars. And I might not live that long, so they better get on with it!”
― Peggy Whitson
“My work ethic is, I think, from my farm life.”
― Peggy Whitson
“My parents are the hardest-working people I ever knew: they always worked every day, all day; they had to come up with the solutions to make things work. And I think that work ethic, maybe stubbornness, single-mindedness, definitely played a role for me. I’m definitely thankful for my roots.”
― Peggy Whitson
“I think the International Space Station is providing a key bridge from us living on Earth to going somewhere into deep space.”
― Peggy Whitson
“Unfortunately, spaceflight takes a lot of time and money.”
― Peggy Whitson
“We are absolutely ready to go to Mars. It’s going to be a fantastic journey getting there and very exciting times.”
― Peggy Whitson
“Gravity always sucks. It really, really does. It’s a big challenge just re-adapting to feeling heavy again, you know? Even my arm feels heavy. My legs feel heavy.”
― Peggy Whitson
“Anyone that’s ever gone to space is always wanting to go back.”
― Peggy Whitson
“The advice I give young people is that you have to pursue something, and you have to have fun along the way.”
― Peggy Whitson
“I learned to not be afraid to fix things that break.”
― Peggy Whitson
“Drive and desire was something I was raised with. It became a very important part of how I’ve become.”
― Peggy Whitson
“You see billions and billions of stars and recognize that you know some of those have planets, too, and maybe there’s life out there, and this is just one of billions of galaxies… and so it gives you this huge perspective of how far we potentially have to go for real exploration.”
― Peggy Whitson
“One of the things I think is really cool that we’re testing on board the International Space Station is the water reclamation system.”
― Peggy Whitson
“The first time I went into space was just so much more than you could imagine or prepare yourself for.”
― Peggy Whitson
“Zero gravity is such an alien environment – completely different from everything we’ve grown up with every single day of our lives. And it’s incomprehensible how much better it was than I anticipated it would be.”
― Peggy Whitson
“Walking in space is absolutely the most exhilarating part of a mission. The view is just incredible.”
― Peggy Whitson
“One of the most beautiful sights is when the rim of the Earth is bright on one side, and you see this defined line of the atmosphere. You see how close and thin it is. We’ve got to be careful. We’ve got to take care of this planet.”
― Peggy Whitson
“One of the astronauts I came to admire the most is John Young.”
― Peggy Whitson
“I love Italian, Mexican, Thai. Something spicy.”
― Peggy Whitson
“I don’t sing in the shower.”
― Peggy Whitson
“I love working at NASA, but the part that has been the most satisfying on a day-to-day basis, hour-to-hour, minute-to-minute, has been working on board the space station. Even if I’m just cleaning the vents in the fans, it all is important.”
― Peggy Whitson
“You can solve problems, but the solutions don’t always have to be elaborate or expensive.”
― Peggy Whitson
“One thing that flying in space does for you is it gives you a change in perspective. We all have to live in the same place.”
― Peggy Whitson
“I think the legacy of the space station will be that we can do something this technically complex in an international way.”
― Peggy Whitson
“On my first flight, I don’t know if maybe it’s a function of time, or if I was less stressed on my second flight, but just being able to tell what part of the planet we were flying over by the reflected light coming through the window – that was pretty special.”
― Peggy Whitson
“The Earth is incredibly beautiful.”
― Peggy Whitson
“I do think space hotels are probably in our future.”
― Peggy Whitson
“Viewing the earth from above gives you this sense of how special the planet is that we live on.”
― Peggy Whitson
“Even if my job for the day is cleaning the vents or fixing the toilet, it still feels good to be a part of the space program and advancing exploration.”
― Peggy Whitson
“It’s been fun doing interviews with the other astronauts, getting to hear: ‘Oh, that’s how he explains it’ or ‘That’s how she thinks about it.’ We work together, but we don’t necessarily share all those thoughts or ideas.”
― Peggy Whitson
“Hopefully, we will get more and more people interested in doing research in space. I think eventually it’s also going to be a great commercial market.”
― Peggy Whitson
“Being a biochemist, I did a lot of tissue-culture research prior to working at NASA and when I first started working there.”
― Peggy Whitson
“A lot of times, you think of things as being science fiction, but the creation of the ideas makes you want to solve them. Then, in solving them, they give us greater capability.”
― Peggy Whitson
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