Space Quotes

That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.

It’s been a great part of my life, to be involved in the space program. Even before that, as a Navy test pilot, I had some really exciting, satisfying jobs. But I guess I would have to say that it has been a distinct pleasure to be involved in the space program—specifically in being allowed […]

Let me say that while I was head of the Astronaut Office I was responsible for the care and feeding of very enthusiastic, very intelligent, very dedicated, and a motivated bunch of guys. And there were jealousies in the ranks, people being jealous of so-and-so particularly being chosen for a flight or for a backup […]

Now planet Earth is only four times as large as the Moon, so you can really still put your thumb and your forefinger around it at that distance. So it makes it look beautiful; it makes it look lonely; it makes it look fragile. You think to yourself, just imagine that millions of people are […]

In the early days we really had what we called “part-task trainers” instead of simulators. Something was built to indicate the control system; something else was built to indicate the radio systems or some of the instruments. And they were all sort of separated, not the great, glorious simulators which we have today.

Everybody who’s been to space says it changes them in some way. And I’m just really excited to figure out how it’s going to change me.

When UFOs became a popular subject and I was in early high school or something, it seemed to me great. We were just reaching out into space, and why not a much more advanced civilization reaching out to us? It seemed so heady and promising, such an interesting future. But as I learned a little […]

Having grown up on the South Side of Chicago going to public schools, having been a medical doctor, having worked in Cambodian refugee camps as well as being an engineer as well as being someone who was very versed in dance and the arts — yes, I’m supposed to bring those perspectives to bear on […]

The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us.

Man is the best computer we can put aboard a spacecraft, and the only one that can be mass produced with unskilled labor.