Kathleen Rubins

It changes your perspective to be able to look out the window and see the planet. One of the thoughts that I had when I first got up here was, 'We really do live on a planet, and we are in a solar system, and we are flying through space right now.' I mean, this is something that you know, obviously, but to see the planet - it's amazing.

The planet is beautiful.

I don't think you ever really decide that you want to be an astronaut. I put in an application and hoped for the best.

If you find something that you're excited about and you're interested in, my advice to young women and young men would be do what you're really interested in and what drives and motivates you.

There's a world of insights to be gained into human health and disease by understanding how gravity and space radiation influence biology.

I think it's going to be amazing to see how the world of microbiology, molecular and cellular biology, and human physiology is massively changed by microgravity.

When I started working at NASA and understanding what the capabilities really were of the space station and the space program, one of the biggest draws for me was the ability to do experiments in space. We can do a number of experiments where gravity is actually a variable.

When I was at Stanford, I was actually in the cancer biology program, but I mostly focused on infectious disease.

When we're doing the space walks, we're working very very hard. Every single minute is choreographed. But there's a few minutes here and there where ground is maybe talking about something, and you have to put your tools down and wait. Just getting a chance to look through your visor and see the planet go by was incredible.

When you go to vacuum in the airlock and you take the hose off the front of your space suit, there's a little bit of water in there, and you can see that sublimate and ice crystals form and fly away. My thought at that moment was, 'Oh, we are not kidding at vacuum here; we are really in space.'

Spaceflight is a tricky business. It is definitely difficult, and I think we forget that sometime.

I was the one with a subscription to 'Sky and Telescope' magazine as a kid while my friends were reading 'Tiger Beat.'

I'm involved with health care/medical supply delivery to Africa and started a non-profit organization to bring supplies to Congo.

I've always been fascinated with science and exploring our world, from microbes to the solar system.

From as young as I can remember, I wanted to be - in order - an astronaut, a geologist, and a biologist.

They say that in space, nobody can hear you scream. The first time I stepped out of the airlock, I was ready to scream - not because I was scared but because I was so excited to see the Earth below me.

I think young folks have a good sense of what they want to do.

NASA trains you to assess emergency situations and react in a way to keep yourself and everyone else safe.

There's actually an incredible amount of parallels between working in central Congo in a remote, isolated village and doing research aboard the space station.

Joining NASA was very exciting, but it was the hardest decision I have had to make in my life.