'The Martian' star Matt Damon dreamt of being an astronaut as a kid!

Hollywood star Matt Damon has revealed that he too dreamed of being an astronaut as many others did during their childhood.

The 45-year old actor, who is ranked among Forbes magazine's most bankable stars and is one of the highest-grossing actors of all time, said, "I played at being an astronaut a little bit. But I think you need to have a really kind of a hardcore pioneering spirit", Fox Studios has reported.

Praising all astronauts, he added, "I think astronauts are the same people who were explorers 500 years ago and jumping on ships and sailing to faraway lands and courting death and pushing the envelope for all of humanity. Thank God there are people like that because that's how we grow and expand and that's how eventually we'll get some of the species off of planet Earth and someplace else".

Damon played the role of Astronaut Mark Watney in highly-acclaimed director Ridley Scott's 'The Martian', which is all set to premiering for the very first time on television on Star Movies on 9th October at 1pm & 9 pm.