You should have a fear of some things. That doesn’t mean it incapacitates you from your ability to figure out a way to deal with it.

I’m a mechanical engineer, and I grew up on a farm, so I like practical hardware – somebody’s elegant solution that proves itself over the long term.

When I did my spacewalks, it was during space station construction. So the shuttle was docked to the fledgling ISS at the time. So we would always stay tethered.

A lot of people live in fear because they haven’t figured out how you’re going to react when faced with a certain set of circumstances. I’ve come to terms with this by looking deeply into...

Although simulators are great for building step-by-step knowledge of a procedure, the worst thing that can happen in a sim is that you get a bad grade on your performance.

If only there was someone out here with long arms,

Our three big emergencies are fire, loss of pressurization or contaminated atmosphere. Any of those things in a spaceship are very deadly and time critical. Everybody’s trained, but I’m the commander of the ship, and...

You can get claustrophobia and agoraphobia – a fear of wide, open spaces – simultaneously on a spacewalk.

The International Space Station is a phenomenal laboratory, an unparalleled test bed for new invention and discovery. Yet I often thought, while silently gazing out the window at Earth, that the actual legacy of humanity’s...

Now, as an astronaut, I have to bring a Sharpie with me everywhere – so I have a pen to sign autographs.

While on the space station, I kept up with news a couple of ways – Mission Control sent daily summaries, and I would scan headlines on Google News when we had an Internet connection, which...

Cynicism is the easiest of all reactions, right? But it’s also so disappointing and self-defeating.

I once made myself black out by pulling G too quickly while flying an F-18. Being unconscious in a single-seat airplane is not good. Fortunately, I woke up in time. I learned how to better...

And then when we assembled it, the mechanism, which was built in Russia, just worked exactly like everybody said, so it was letter perfect.

Every single thing that you learn really just gives you more comfort. It’s something I counsel kids all the time: if someone is willing to teach you something for free, take them up on it....

Space is not a good place to mix foods because as soon as you take something out of the package, it becomes a flying object.

The world, when you look at it, it just can’t be random. I mean, it’s so different than the vast emptiness that is everything else, and even all the other planets we’ve seen, at least...

The communities and countries best at using energy to optimize a microclimate for human life are also the ones whose people have the longest average lifespans. Canada, Sweden, and Iceland – places with inhospitable winter...

I wasn’t lonely. Loneliness, I think, has very little to do with location. It’s a state of mind. In the centre of every city are some of the loneliest people in the world. If anything,...

And now for Return to Flight, I’m chief of robotics working in the astronaut office in Houston, as a Canadian.

I watched the first people walk on the moon, and to me, it was just an obvious thing – I want to somehow turn myself into that. But the real question is, how do you...

In the astronaut business – the shuttle is a very complicated vehicle; it’s the most complicated flying machine ever built. And in the astronaut business, we have a saying, which is, ‘There is no problem...

To be one of the world’s top space robotic arm operators is a necessary skill for an astronaut, but it doesn’t have much carry-over.

Just taking risks for risk’s sake, that doesn’t do it for me. I’m willing to take risks that I think are worth it, and I’ve worked so hard to make sure that I survive.

I was born in Sarnia, Ontario; a small town, it’s where oil was pretty much discovered in North America.

That’s how we ended up providing those things, not by some sort of graciousness, but because of our raw ability and proven track record and they worked perfectly.

I don’t want to be treated like I came from another planet or something or was somehow born with some weird birthright or super power. I don’t view myself that way. I am a normal...

I’ve raised three kids: my wife and I have three kids. I’ve observed through direct contact the adults they are now is partially the product of where they came from and what we did. With...

Decide in your heart of hearts what really excites and challenges you, and start moving your life in that direction. Every decision you make, from what you eat to what you do with your time...

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...

Airline food is cooked in an oven and then kept warm. Space station food is often cooked in an oven and then thermo-stabilised, irradiated or dehydrated and then stored for a year or two before...

When you’re on one of the Caribbean islands, sometimes it’s hard to picture how they fit in with the rest, but when you see them all joined together like a necklace from space, you see...

I’ve put a lot of my life into making it possible to fly in space at all.

It’s beautiful to see the Big Arm moving the pallet around, … Big relief.