Michael J. Massimino Quotes

#1. My odyssey to become an astronaut kind of started in grad school, and I was working, up at MIT, in space robotics-related work; human and robot working together.

Michael J. Massimino

#2. 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

#3. I saw this movie 'The Right Stuff' when I was in college, and it really rekindled my interest in being an astronaut. I started taking those steps, and then I realized it would be the chance of a lifetime. It would be a dream life: not just a job, but the whole life.

Michael J. Massimino

#4. For me, the Earth had always been a kind of a safe haven, you know, where I could go to work or be in my home or take my kids to school. But I realized it really wasn't that. It really is its own spaceship. And I had always been a space traveler.

Michael J. Massimino

#5. I think most astronauts are not risk takers. We take calculated risks for something that we think is worthwhile.

Michael J. Massimino

#6. I think the astronaut job is the best job in the world. I realized when I was older and started applying for it that it's a pretty cool job.

Michael J. Massimino

#7. The Earth - from our altitude at Hubble, we're 350 miles up. We can see the curvature. We can see the roundness of our home, our home planet. And it's the most magnificent thing I've ever seen. It's like looking into Heaven. It's paradise.

Michael J. Massimino

#8. In New York, the Mets are winning the World Series in 1969; that was pretty big, but I would say the moon landing was right up there with the Mets in the World Series. So it made a, a big impression on me as a little kid.

Michael J. Massimino