Quotes by Ron Garan

Open collaboration encourages greater accountability, which in turn fosters trust.

We are limited only by our imagination and our will to act.

People are more likely to remember the great social interaction they had with a colleague than the great meeting they both attended.

If we adopt the same collaborative mindset and practices that got to the moon and back, and that built the International Space Station, we can alleviate poverty—and do much more.

Earth is a small town with many neighborhoods in a very big universe.

This was exactly what I experienced in space: immense gratitude for the opportunity to see Earth from this vantage, and for the gift of the planet weve been given.

A partners different perspective is valuable, but the very fact that it is different means that it will require work, humility, time, and resources to incorporate that perspective. At times, this will require checking ones pride at the door.

After mutual respect and understanding are achieved, it is possible to establish real, sincere relationships, which is the foundation of a solid long-term collaboration.

You cant solve problems until you understand the other side. –Jeffrey Manber

Everyone I have spoken with about working with the Russians in space exploration believes that the United States has learned a great deal from Russia and that Russia has learned a great deal from the United States – and that the entire international space partnership is much better because of it.

We essentially had to build a docking mechanism between the two capsules. We didnt have to share a lot of data, and we did that at the height of the Cold War, which was pretty symbolic. –Bill Gerstenmaier

And in that moment, I was hit with the realization that this delicate layer of atmosphere is all that protects every living thing on Earth from perishing in the harshness of space.

At this point I thought We made it, by which I meant We survived. I also was acutely aware that my childhood dream of flying into space had just come true.

Ideally, the ISS program will just be one more incremental step on an expanding, incredible journal of exploration and understanding, taking us higher and farther.

I lay on my back, surprised at how calm and focused I felt, strapped to four and a half million pounds of explosives.