All in all, for someone who was immersed in, fascinated by, and dedicated to flight, I was disappointed by the wrinkle in history that had brought me along one generation late. I had missed all the great times and adventures in flight.
As a boy, because I was born and raised in Ohio, about 60 miles north of Dayton, the legends of the Wrights have been in my memories as long as I can remember.
Geologists have a saying – rocks remember.
Gliders, sail planes, they’re wonderful flying machines. It’s the closest you can come to being a bird.
Here men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the Moon. July 1969 AD. We came in peace for all mankind.
Houston, Tranquillity Base here. The Eagle has landed.
I am, and ever will be, a white socks, pocket protector, nerdy engineer.
I believe every human has a finite number of heartbeats. I don’t intend to waste any of mine.
I believe that every human has a finite number of heartbeats. I don’t intend to waste any of mine running around doing exercises.
I can honestly say – and it’s a big surprise to me – that I have never had a dream about being on the moon.
I fully expected that, by the end of the century, we would have achieved substantially more than we actually did.
I guess we all like to be recognized not for one piece of fireworks, but for the ledger of our daily work.
I put up my thumb and it blotted out the planet Earth.
I think we’re going to the moon because it’s in the nature of the human being to face challenges. It’s by the nature of his deep inner soul… we’re required to do these things just as salmon swim upstream.
I thought the attractions of being an astronaut were actually, not so much the Moon, but flying in a completely new medium.
I was elated, ecstatic and extremely surprised that we were successful.
I’m substantially concerned about the policy directions of the space agency. We have a situation in the U.S. where the White House and Congress are at odds over what the future direction should be. They’re sort of playing a game and NASA is the shuttlecock that they’re hitting back and forth.
If that’s there, I believe that technology will probably step up to their part of it.
In much of society, research means to investigate something you do not know or understand.
It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn’t feel like a giant. I felt very, very small.
It’s a brilliant surface in that sunlight. The horizon seems quite close to you because the curvature is so much more pronounced than here on earth. It’s an interesting place to be. I recommend it.
Mystery creates wonder and wonder is the basis of man’s desire to understand.
NASA has been one of the most successful public investments in motivating students to do well and achieve all they can achieve. It’s sad that we are turning the programme in a direction where it will reduce the amount of motivation and stimulation it provides to young people.
People love conspiracy theories.
Pilots take no special joy in walking. Pilots like flying.
Research is creating new knowledge.
Science has not yet mastered prophecy. We predict too much for the next year and yet far too little for the next 10.
The Eagle has landed.
The important achievement of Apollo was demonstrating that humanity is not forever chained to this planet and our visions go rather further than that and our opportunities are unlimited.
The one thing I regret was that my work required an enormous amount of my time, and a lot of travel.
This is one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.
We had hundreds of thousands of people all dedicated to doing the perfect job, and I think they did about as well as anyone could ever have expected.
Well, I think we tried very hard not to be overconfident, because when you get overconfident, that’s when something snaps up and bites you.
Yeah, I wasn’t chosen to be first. I was just chosen to command that flight. Circumstance put me in that particular role. That wasn’t planned by anyone.
