Training was very extensive, and we dealt with many recoveries from emergencies, and fortunately, participating and observing and existing through the reality of space was a once-in-a-lifetime experience and it was not marred by unexpected hazards or catastrophes.
The decision to go to the moon is now appreciated and associated with President Kennedy’s speech, but somebody else had told him it was a good idea. It turned out to be a good commitment, but it was a unique situation.
Trips to Mars, the Moon, even orbit, will require that we provide astrotourists with as many comforts from home as possible, including paying each other.
You need propellants to accelerate toward Mars, then to decelerate at Mars, again to re-accelerate from Mars to Earth, and finally to decelerate back at Earth. Accordingly, the mass of these required propellants, in short, drives our need for innovative launch vehicles.
There are a lot of people that get interested in something, and they hear about it, and they read about it, and then they watch it happen, and that’s why I had quite an interest in the lottery because you’d interest a lot of people, and then just a few would win a chance to do something.
At the core of the risk-free society is a self-indulgent failure of nerve.
The final frontier may be human relationships, one person to another.
What are you going to do with astronauts who first reach the surface of Mars and then turn around and rocket back home-ward? What are they going to do, write their memoirs? Would they go again? Having them repeat the voyage, in my view, is dim-witted. Why don’t they stay there on Mars?
When the time comes to start building deep space transports and refueling rocket tankers, it will be the commercial industry that steps up, not another government-owned, government-managed enterprise.
Space is not just going up and coming back down again. Space is getting into orbit and being there, living there, establishing a presence, a permanence.
I’m sure that there are places in the deserts in Australia that could be similar to where we might want to go on Mars.
When we can demonstrate that we can take off horizontally and put something into orbit, then we can begin to talk about increasing the amount of payload. But to say, ‘I’m going to do that and put people into orbit’ is a real leap.
When we get there, if we don’t find any life on Mars, from that point on there will be life on Mars because we’ll bring it there, whether it’s germs and leftover urine bags, whatever it is.
America can take man to the moon, and America can take men to Mars – and beyond.
I am definitely not rich.
America’s can-do spirit cast a warm glow across nations and cultures, generating more goodwill and support for our country’s ideals and causes than had otherwise been possible.
As someone who flew two space capsules and twice landed in the ocean, I can attest from personal experience how much logistics work is needed to get you home.
My favourite thing to do on this planet is to scuba dive.
I have no intention of selling any more of the historical Apollo 11 items in my possession for the remainder of my life. I intend to pass a portion of these items on to my children and to loan the most important items for permanent display in suitable museums around the country.
There’s no doubt who was a leader in space after the Apollo Program. Nobody came close to us. And our education system, in science, technology, engineering and math, was at the top of the world. It’s no longer there. We’re descending rather rapidly.