I was a child of World War Two . I saw films of pilots taking off from aircraft carriers and decided that was the only thing I wanted to do. And it had to be flying from sea carriers. Airfields were not enough.

To become an astronaut, someone has to have a dream of his own to do something that he or she has always wanted to do, then commit himself to making that dream come true.

Here I am at the turn of the millennium and I'm still the last man to have walked on the moon, somewhat disappointing. It says more about what we have not done than about what we have done.

Today, we are on a path of decay. We are seeing the book close on five decades of accomplishment as the leader in human space exploration.

It's our destiny to explore. It's our destiny to be a space-faring nation.

Curiosity is the essence of human existence.

If you begin to think you're something you're not, you're looking in the wrong mirror.