When President Kennedy said “We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”
The telegram to Apollo 8. “You saved 1968”.
Valentina Tereshkova: Anyone who has spent time in space will love it for the rest of their lives". Succient.
Yuri Gagarin before liftoff, lets go.
The line that saved the Apollo 12 mission:
“Try SCE to AUX.”
I think it’s apocryphal, but I enjoy the second half of that line.
“Remember, John, this was built by the low bidder”
Buzz saying to Neil on the moon:
“Magnificent desolation”…
Yeah.
Jesus.
A few days ago Mike Hopkins tweeted this from the international space station;
“Have you ever watched the clouds go by & let your imagination see different shapes? It works from space as well.”
In Mike Collins’ autobiography he talks about how he was CapCom when it came time for Apollo 8 to do its burn sending it towards the moon and how inadequate the words “You are go for TLI” were to express what was happening - that for the first time since creation man would be leaving other’s gravity bonds and entering into orbit around another body.
His description of his thoughts epitomizes how insightful the whole book is and why it’s my favorite astronaut bio.
Mike Collins was promised the next lunar landing, but left for his family.
I think I’d sell anyone down the river to walk on the moon.