John M. Grunsfeld

“Asteroid detection, tracking, and defense of our planet is something that NASA, its interagency partners, and the global community take very seriously.”

“When I first went to Hubble, as an astronomer and as a scientist, it was a dream come true. And as an astronaut, the Hubble missions are premiere missions because Hubble is so important to s...”

“When I grew up on the south side of Chicago, it was kind of a rough neighborhood, and when my parents saw the prospect of my older sister going to middle school, high school, they decided th...”

“All indications are that three and a half billion years ago, Mars looked like Earth. It had lakes. It had rivers. It had river deltas. It had snow-capped peaks and puffy clouds and blue sky....”

“Growing up in Highland Park, in high school, I had some very influential teachers: I had a math teacher who taught calculus that helped me learn to be in love with mathematics; I had a chemi...”

“I was not really scared on my spacewalks. We practice so much and need to stay so focused that it has a calming effect on me. I do a kind of visualization and meditation in the airlock prior...”

“Only by studying large numbers of people can we figure out, are astronauts dying at a higher rate of cancer, and what types of cancers, than other people?”

“Are we alone? Many, many people on planet Earth want to know. We are on the cusp of being able to answer that question... because of the investments we're making in space technology.”

“Here on Earth, we're exposed to asteroids hitting the Earth, eventual changes in the Sun, changes in the Earth's climate, things we're doing to the Earth's climate. If we want to survive, we...”

“The Hubble Space Telescope is more than remarkable. It has answered just so many of those fundamental questions that people have been asking about the cosmos since people were able to ask qu...”

“The James Webb Space Telescope was specifically designed to see the first stars and galaxies that were formed in the universe.”

“The James Webb Space Telescope was specifically designed to see the first stars and galaxies that were formed in the universe. So we're gonna see the snapshot of when stars started. When gal...”

“I grew up on the south side of Chicago in the 1960s, and I think there was a synchronicity of events that inspired me to be an astronaut, and, of course, the backdrop is nothing less than Me...”

“What we do at NASA is inspiring. It's reaching, it's visionary, and it inspires people on Earth to try hard things.”

“I got lucky and got assigned to Hubble.”

“The only reason Hubble works is because we have a space shuttle.”

“The team at the Space Telescope Science Institute has a demonstrated record of meeting the high-performance challenges of operating the Hubble Space Telescope and preparing for the James Web...”

“Hubble isn't just a satellite; it's about humanity's quest for knowledge.”

“I can't imagine anywhere I'd rather be than outside the space shuttle in my space suit next to the Hubble Space Telescope.”

“To help enable the kind of science Hubble is performing makes my life worthwhile.”