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I never declared I wanted to be an astronaut, as I considered that was presumptuous.

If my vision was good enough, I'd be an astronaut.

I didn't really decide that I wanted to be an astronaut for sure until the end of college.

I always wanted to be an astronaut.

There was a small window when I wanted to be an astronaut. It may have coincided with not getting cast in a high school play.

It so happened that my goals kind of matched my career progression toward becoming an astronaut.

Well, for me it really wasn't a case of deciding to be an astronaut.

I progressed through my schooling, undergraduate and graduate degrees, excited about math and science and engineering, but really didn't think about being an astronaut at that point. It was kind of unreachable.

We thought our careers as cosmonauts - we were young then - would end with a flight to Mars. But, you see, life has made some course corrections.

I wanted to be an astronaut and wanted to go to space camp, but then I found out that I was too short to become an astronaut. My mom really made me believe that if I worked hard enough and if I really wanted to do it, I could do it.