I never made a career decision based solely on my desire to be an astronaut. I attended the Naval Academy because I wanted to be a Navy pilot. I majored in math because math had always come pretty easily to me and I liked it. John L. Phillips academyastronautattend share on social
We're going to be focusing our science on things that will take us farther and longer into space. For many of those experiments, the crew members are human guinea pigs, which is fine; that's part of my job. I don't mind being a human guinea pig. John L. Phillips crowexperimentfar share on social
It so happened that my goals kind of matched my career progression toward becoming an astronaut. John L. Phillips astronautcareergoal Change image and share on social
In the 19th Century people were looking for the Northwest Passage. Ships were lost and brave people were killed, but that doesn't mean we never went back to that part of the world again, and I consider it the same in space exploration. John L. Phillips 19thbackbrave share on social
Small samples in the centrifuge will spin at varying rates to create synthetic gravity, like the gravity of Mars or the gravity of the moon, and measure how the specimens respond within the centrifuge. John L. Phillips centrifugecreategravity share on social
After assembly complete, when we have a larger crew on orbit, a more complex vehicle, more laboratories and more robot arms, maybe we'll have room for specialists. But right now we don't. John L. Phillips armassemblycomplete Change image and share on social
A civilization that only looks inward will stagnate. We have to keep looking outward; we have to keep finding new avenues for human endeavor and human expression. John L. Phillips avenuecivilizationendeavor Change image and share on social
There weren't any astronauts until I was about 10. Yuri Gagarin went into space right around my 10th birthday. John L. Phillips 10thastronautbirthday Change image and share on social
