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It seems that 'rocket scientist' is a job category that's here for the long haul, like 'mortician.' But all this activity masks an important point: rockets are not a terribly efficient way to lift things into space.

What I do is not rocket science, but I sure do love it.

I always said I wanted to be scientist, but I didn't really have the staying power.

But while doing that I'd been following a variety of fields in science and technology, including the work in molecular biology, genetic engineering, and so forth.

Rocket science is tough, and rockets have a way of failing.

I think I set myself on a course to become a scientist around about the time that Carl Sagan's 'Cosmos' series was on television, and there really was no going back for me at that point, and then I went on to study space science and then get my Ph.D., then go aboard and work in the European Space Agency.

I was useless at science. I was never going to be an astrophysicist.

I was good at math, math was my thing - but I was not nearly good enough to be an astrophysicist. I was way outta my league. I realized this very quickly.

I never wanted to be a scientist per se. I wanted to be a naturalist.

I wanted to be a scientist. But I had no math skills.