I had done everything I could do as an astronaut, and we have a long line of inexperienced astronauts waiting for their first missions, and so my rol…

- Leroy Chiao

Space is very unforgiving business

- Leroy Chiao

Qian Xuesen, the father of the Chinese Space Program, studied in the United States, and he was a protégé of Theodore Von Carmen's at Cal Tech and hel…

- Leroy Chiao

Tinkering is something we need to know how to do in order to keep something like the space station running. I am a tinkerer by nature.

- Leroy Chiao

I remember getting advice like, "Oh, do what interests you. Don't worry about tomorrow, live for today," kind of thing. And to a degree, you've got t…

- Leroy Chiao

I think it's good to have competition. Now we have a third country that can launch astronauts, so it's good for all of us. It makes us a little bit m…

- Leroy Chiao

One of my challenges was to try to photograph the Great Wall of China. And I did actually take some photos, but it was hard to discern the wall with …

- Leroy Chiao

There is no one area of chemical engineering that specifically helped me in my career as an astronaut, it was more the general education in engineeri…

- Leroy Chiao

As commander I was responsible for the overall success of the mission, and so I had to know at least a little bit about everything.

- Leroy Chiao