A biography for Peggy Whitsonhasn’t been written yet.
“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.”
“Viewing the earth from above gives you this sense of how special the planet is that we live on.”
“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.”
“I don't sing in the shower.”
“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.”
“I am not sure what the future holds for me personally, but I envision myself continuing to work on spaceflight programs.”
“One of the things I think is really cool that we're testing on board the International Space Station is the water reclamation system.”
“I like to say I'm determined; some people would call it stubborn. It depends on your perspective.”
“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.”
“One of the astronauts I came to admire the most is John Young.”
“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.”
“I love Italian, Mexican, Thai. Something spicy.”
“The advice I give young people is that you have to pursue something, and you have to have fun along the way.”
“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.”
“My work ethic is, I think, from my farm life.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“Unfortunately, spaceflight takes a lot of time and money.”