As I have discovered again and again, things are never as bad (or as good) as they seem at the time.

Life off Earth is in two important respects not at all unworldly: you can choose to focus on the surprises and pleasures, or the frustrations. And you can choose to appreciate the smallest scraps of experience, the everyday moments, or to value only the grandest, most stirring ones.

It is spectacular. From about five minutes in, when we knew for sure that we were going to have the weather to go, the smile on my face just got bigger and bigger, and I was just beaming through the whole launch. I mean, it is just an amazing ride.

"What's the next thing that's going to kill me?" is a mantra for pilots and astronauts.

The Moon has given us months, tides and a destination that ever-beckons. It's time we build a rocket and go to stay.

My favourite city for nightlife is Toronto, as it has such a multicultural feel, with so many different restaurants and theatres.

When I stand on the edge of a cliff or right at the edge of a building or something, it's one of the few things that gives me kind of a deep, overwhelming, irrational fear where it affects my physiology.