A star-gazing, rocket-riding, moon-walking quote collection

That's one small step for [a] man; one giant leap for mankind.

— Neil A. Armstrong, Commander Apollo 11, first words spoken by a man walking on another heavenly body, received at 9:56 pm local time in Houston (Mission Elapsed Time 109:24:13), as Armstrong stepped off the LM 'Eagle' and onto the Moon in the Mare Tranquilitatis (Sea of Tranquility), 20 July 1969.

Listen to the original transmission from the Moon (real audio)
Or watch the original TV broadcast (MPEG)

Armstrong didn't realize the 'a' was not heard until after he got back to Earth. In the book 'First on the Moon' (the "exclusive and official account . . . as seen by the men who experienced it") Neil wrote his famous words with the 'a,' noting that Mission Control missed the 'a' in the first phrase. He writes "tape recorders are fallible." Listening to the tape, people could not hear the 'a.' Maybe he did not say it. Armstong was an amazing test pilot, then awake for 24 hours, making history in the ultimate uncertain environment. He was not an actor used to reciting lines. When presented with a plaque by the builders of the Lunar Module he pointed out their mistake in failing to include the 'a,' at which point he was told that the word was not in the tapes. He insisted—at that time—that he had said it. Thirty years later he said:

The 'a' was intended. I thought I said it. I can't hear it when I listen on the radio reception here on earth, so I'll be happy if you just put it in parenthesis. (16 July, 1999.)

Of course, maybe he did say it. In his official biography, First Man, Armstrong states,

It doesn’t sound like there was time for the word to be there. On the other hand, I didn’t intentionally make an inane statement . . . certainly the ‘a’ was intended, because that’s the only way the statement makes any sense.

The most recent news (The Times of London, 02 October 2006) is that by using high-tech sound analysis techniques, an Australian computer expert has rediscovered the missing 'a.' "Peter Shann Ford ran the NASA recording through sound-editing software and clearly picked up an acoustic wave from the word 'a,' finding that Mr Armstrong spoke it at a rate of 35 milliseconds—ten times too fast for it to be audible. Mr Ford’s findings have been presented to NASA officials in Washington." Neil Armstrong issued a statement saying: “I find the technology interesting and useful. I also find his conclusion persuasive.”

Asked at the Apollo 11 postflight crew press conference when he had begun to think about what he would say and how long he pondered the words, Neil replied:

Yes, I did think about it. It was not extemporaneous neither was it planned. It evolved during the conduct of the flight and I decided what the words would be while we were on the lunar surface just prior to leaving the LM. (Houston, 12 August 1969)

Asked years later if NASA suggested a line for him to say, Neil answered:

The late Julian Scheer, who really led the NASA relations with the outside world in many ways, was absolutely adamant that Headquarters never put words in the mouths of their people, not just astronauts, but anybody, that they let people speak for themselves. They made it known sort of what the party line was and what the NASA position was, but beyond that, they never, to my knowledge, controlled the … public statements of others. Certainly they insisted, in the case of the flight crews, that they not be told what to say, that their statements be their own elocution of what they saw and what they wanted to say. As far as I know, that prohibition was never violated.

He added:

I thought about it after [the lunar] landing, and because we had a lot of other things to do, it was not something that I really concentrated on but just something that was kind of passing around subliminally or in the background. But it, you know, was a pretty simple statement, talking about stepping off something. Why, it wasn't a very complex thing. It was what it was. . . . I didn't think of it as being as important as others. I didn't want to be dumb, but it was contrived in a way, and I was guilty of that. (NASA Oral History Project, Houston, 19 September 2001)

Interviewed at age 75 about the line, he said:

I thought that when I step off it's just going to be a little step, you'll step from there, down to there. But then I thought about all those 400,000 people that had given me the opportunity to make that step and thought it's gonna be a big something for all those folks and indeed a lot of others that weren't even involved in the project. So it was a kind of simple correlation of thoughts. (60 minutes TV show, 6 November 2005)

It is a great line, among the best aerospace lines ever, but did not impress everybody.  Another explorer with a famous first—Edmund Hillary, first to climb Mount Everest—said it would have been, "better if he had said something natural like, 'Jesus, here we are!'" The July 1969 edition of Esquire magazine even had as its cover story famous writers discussing what the first words should be.

Armstrong's next words, right after the small step, show the expert descriptive test pilot at work:

The surface is fine and powdery. I can kick it up loosely with my toe. It does adhere in fine layers, like powdered charcoal, to the sole and sides of my boots. I only go in a small fraction of an inch, maybe an eighth of an inch, but I can see the footprints of my boots and the treads in the fine, sandy particles. There seems to be no difficult in moving around, as we suspected.

Neil's partner on the Moon, Edwin E. "Buzz" Aldrin Jr., was next out the hatch. Buzz said, "Be sure not to lock it on my way out." On the surface, Neil says "Isn't that something? Magnificent sight out here." Buzz replys:

Magnificent desolation.

Listen to Buzz's original transmission (MP3)

When the eagle landed on the moon, I was speechless—overwhelmed, like most of the world. Couldn't say a word. I think all I said was, "Wow! Jeez!" Not exactly immortal. Well, I was nothing if not human.

—Walter Cronkite, CBS news anchor, interview in 'Esquire' magazine, April 2006.

Whoopee! Man, that may have been a small one for Neil, but it's a long one for me.

Listen to the original transmission (MP3)

— Charles "Pete" Conrad Jr., Commander Apollo 12 and the shortest Apollo astronaut, upon becoming the 3rd man to walk on the Moon, 19 November 1969. Regards the line he said later in a PBS interview:

 "Well, nobody remembers the second and that was why I said what I said. It was based on a bet I had with somebody who felt that Neil's words had been propaganda and not written by him. And I tried to assure this person that that wasn't the case. And so it was in August of '69 before the fight when I made this bet: that I would say something that they would know that the United States government wasn't Big Brother telling us what to say. So I said, "It may have been small for Neil but it was a big one for a little fella like me" and it came out close to that. And I was right, nobody remembers what the second person said anyhow. And the only bad thing was the person that I made the bet with didn't pay off".

Al is on the surface. And it's been a long way, but we're here.

— Alan Shepard, Commander Apollo 14, upon becoming the 5th (and oldest) man to walk on the Moon, 5 February 1971.

As I stand out here in the wonders of the unknown at Hadley, I sort of realize there's a fundamental truth to our nature, Man must explore . . . and this is exploration at its greatest.

Listen to the original transmission (MP3)

— Dave Scott, Commander Apollo 15, upon becoming the 7th man to walk on the Moon, 31 July 1971.

There you are, mysterious and unknown Descartes highland plains. Apollo 16 is gonna change your image. . . .I'm sure glad they got ol' Brer Rabbit here, back in the briar patch where he belongs.

Listen to the original transmission (MP3)

— John Young, Commander Apollo 16, upon becoming the 9th man to walk on the Moon, 21 April 1972. NASA says that the rabbit references come from the Joel Chandler Harris story "How Mr. Rabbit was too sharp for Mr. Fox". In the story, Brer Rabbit has become entangled with the Tar Baby and is caught by Brer Fox. Brer Fox thinks he might roast Brer Rabbit, who says, "I don't care what you do with me, Brer Fox, just so you don't fling me in that briar patch." As it turns out, there is no firewood handy, so Brer Fox thinks about hanging Brer Rabbit, who says that would be much better than being thrown in the briar patch. And so on. On his fourth spaceflight, NASA has finally thrown John Young in the briar patch.

As I step off at the surface at Taurus-Littrow, I'd like to dedicate the first step of Apollo 17 to all those who made it possible.

Listen to the original transmission (MP3)

— Gene Cernan, Commander Apollo 17, upon becoming the 11th man to walk on the Moon, 11 December 1972.

We're number one on the runway.

— Buzz Aldrin, 21 hours and 36 minutes after landing on the moon, his reply to Houston's "Our guidance recommendation is PGNCS and you are cleared for takeoff." The ascent stage rocket was then lit and Neil and Buzz left the moon.

Bob, this is Gene, and I'm on the surface; and, as I take man's last step from the surface, back home for some time to come - but we believe not too long into the future - I'd like to just [say] what I believe history will record. That America's challenge of today has forged man's destiny of tomorrow. And, as we leave the Moon at Taurus- Littrow, we leave as we came and, God willing, as we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind. Godspeed the crew of Apollo 17.

Listen to the original transmission (MP3)

— Gene Cernan, Commander Apollo 17. Last man to walk on the Moon, 14 December 1972.

Contact light.

— Edwin E. "Buzz" Aldrin Jr., man's first words after landing on the Moon.

Shutdown.

— Neil Armstrong, next words.

Houston, Tranquility Base here, the Eagle has landed.

— Neil Armstrong, transmitting from the Moon, 3:18 p.m. Houston time 20 July 1969. This call and the phrase 'Tranquility Base' were unknown in advance to NASA. Buzz Aldrin later said in a PBS interview that:

As soon as we touched down, I knew we'd done it, but I knew that there were certain discrete times after the nominal touchdown, if something was wrong, you don't want to abort right away, you want to wait until this discrete time, because there are more favorable rendezvous conditions. After about two minutes, then it's too late really, because if you were to lift off after two minutes after the normal landing, Mike Collins is going around and around and he's too far ahead for you to catch up to him in a reasonable time, and he's going to have to do some other maneuvers so that you can catch up with him. So those first couple of minutes are very crucial to look around and see if everything is okay and hope that the Earth is measuring everything of the status of all your pressure systems, and your tanks, and your electrical systems, because if you do have to abort, you should do it right away. And I felt that that was a fairly critical time, so it surprised me that during that time, Neil chose to make the call to Houston Tranquility Base that the Eagle has landed. It surprised me a little bit, because we never trained to do that, because we didn't want to tell them back in the simulators in the training what we were going to say after we landed, and I expected he would wait until we'd been there [and] that we could monitor those things. But it's something that is a surprise, but then you understand — well, that's the way you should do it; you should call right away, things like that.

Anyway, the reply was:

Roger, Tranquility. We copy you on the ground. You've got a bunch of guys about to turn blue. We're breathing again. Thanks a lot.

— Charlie Duke, CapCom, Mission Control.
Listen to the whole final approach  (real audio)

Fantastic!

— Michael Collins, orbiting in the command module.

Houston, that may have seemed like a very long final phase. The autotargeting was taking us right into a ... crater, with a large number of big boulders and rocks ... and it required ... flying manually over the rock field to find a reasonably good area.

— Neil Armstrong

Roger, we copy. It was beautiful from here, Tranquility. Over.

— Charlie Duke, CapCom

We'll get to the details of what's around here, but it looks like a collection of just about every variety of shape — angularity, granularity, about every variety of rock.... The colors — well.... There doesn't appear to be too much of a general color at all; however, it looks as though some of the rocks and boulders [are] going to have some interesting colors to them. Over.

— Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin Jr.

Rog, Tranquility. Be advised there are lots of smiling faces in this room and all over the world. Over.

— Charlie Duke, CapCom

There are two of them up here.

— Neil Armstrong

And don't forget one in the command module.... And thanks for putting me on relay, Houston. I was missing all the action.

— Michael Collins

OK, let's get this mother out of here.

— Eugene Cernan, Commander Apollo 17. Reportedly (astronaut Walter Cunningham in his book, 'The All-American Boys') the last words spoken on the Moon. However the transcripts show Cernan saying right before takeoff, "Okay. Now, let's get off. Forget the camera" and the last words being Dr. Harrison Hagen "Jack" Schmitt saying, "3, 2, 1 . . . ignition" The LM lifted off the Moon at 22:54:37 GMT on 14 December 1972.

Listen to the original transmission (MP3)

Watch Apollo 17 leave the Moon (MPEG)

A little levity is appropriate in a dangerous trade.

— Walter M. Schirra Jr.

Unfortunately the suit is so stiff, I can't do that with two hands, but I'm going to try a little sand trap shot here.

— Alan Shepard, Apollo 14, golfing on the Moon, 6 February 1971

I think Isaac Newton is doing most of the driving now.

— Bills Anders, Apollo 8 Commander, when told that a ground controller's son had asked who was driving the capsule on the return from the Moon to the Earth, 26 December 1968

If we die, we want people to accept it. We are in a risky business, and we hope that if anything happens to us it will not delay the program. The conquest of space is worth the risk of life.

— Astronaut Virgil I. Grissom. On 27 January 1967, astronauts Grissom, White, and Chaffee died from a flash fire aboard the Apollo 1 spacecraft.

If we are to win the battle that is now going on around the world between freedom and tyranny, the dramatic achievements in space which occurred in recent weeks should have made clear to all of us, as did Sputnik in 1957, the impact of this adventure on the minds of men everywhere... Now it is time to take longer strides-time for this nation to take a clearly leading role in space achievement, which in many ways may hold the key to our future on Earth. ...we have never made the national decisions or marshaled the national resources required for such leadership. We have never specified long-range goals on an urgent time schedule... Space is open to us now; and our eagerness to share its meaning is not governed by the efforts of others. We go into space because whatever mankind must undertake, free men must fully share . . .

I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth. No single space project...will be more exciting, or more impressive to mankind, or more important...and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish...

— President John F. Kennedy, Special Joint Session of Congress, 25 May 1961. At the time the US manned space program had about 15 minutes of actual time logged. Hear the whole speech, real audio format.

We go into space because whatever mankind must undertake, free men must fully share.

— President John F. Kennedy

... the United States was not built by those who waited and rested and wished to look behind them. This country was conquered by those who moved forward, and so will space.

— President John F. Kennedy, Rice University, Houston, Texas, 12 September,1962.

But why, some say, the Moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask, why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas?

— President John F. Kennedy, Rice University, Houston, Texas, 12 September,1962.

If I could get one message to you it would be this: the future of this country and the welfare of the free world depends upon our success in space. There is no room in this country for any but a fully cooperative, urgently motivated all-out effort toward space leadership. No one person, no one company, no one government agency, has a monopoly on the competence, the missions, or the requirements for the space program.

— President Lyndon B. Johnson

The United States this week will commit its national pride, eight years of work and $24 billion of its fortune to showing the world it can still fulfill a dream. It will send three young men on a human adventure of mythological proportions with the whole of the civilized world invited to watch - for better or worse.

— Rudy Abramson, 'Los Angeles Times,' July 13 1969.

It is the policy of the United States that activities in space should be devoted to peaceful purposes for the benefit of all mankind.

— P. L. 85-568 U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958.

Is the Moon made out of green cheese?
No, it's American cheese.

— Bill Anders, Apollo 8, after splashdown, while the first humans to travel to the Moon waited to be picked up out of the ocean, someone called from the ship or the helicopter asking is the Moon made of green cheese, 27 December 1968.

I'm proud to be an American, I'll tell you. What a program and what a place and what an experience.

— Charlie Duke, Apollo 16 Lunar Module Pilot, saluting the U.S. flag on the surface of the Moon, 21 April 1972

You could see the flames and the outer skin of the spacecraft glowing; and burning, baseball-size chunks flying off behind us. It was an eerie feeling, like being a gnat inside a blowtorch flame.

— Bill Anders, Apollo 8 re-entry, quoted in 'Lunar Reflections' Omni magazine, July 1989.

This is the greatest week in the history of the world since the Creation.

— President Richard M. Nixon, to Apollo XI crew aboard USS Hornet, 24 July 1969.

This has been far more than three men on a mission to the Moon; more still than the efforts of a government and industry team; more, even, than the efforts of one nation. We feel this stands as a symbol of the insatiable curiosity of all mankind to explore the unknown.

— Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin Jr, in a broadcast from Apollo XI.

It's a strange, eerie sensation to fly a lunar landing trajectory - not difficult, but somewhat complex and unforgiving.

— Neil Armstrong

Here Men From Planet Earth First Set Foot Upon The Moon July 1969 A.D. We Came In Peace For All Mankind.

— Plaque left on the Moon.
Watch the original TV broadcast of the dedication on the Moon (MPEG)

It's different, but it's very pretty out here. I suppose they are going to make a big deal of all this.

— Neil Armstrong, transmitting from the Moon.

It's a vast, lonely, forbidding expanse of nothing rather like clouds and clouds of pumice stone. And it certainly does not appear to be a very inviting place to live or work.

— Frank Borman, regards the lunar surface.

Neil and Buzz, I am talking to you by telephone from the Oval Office at the White House, and this certainly has to be the most historic telephone call ever made. . . . Because of what you have done, the heavens have become a part of man's world. As you talk to us from the Sea of Tranquility, it inspires us to redouble our efforts to bring peace and tranquility to Earth.

— President Richard M. Nixon.
Watch the whole phone call (MPEG)

Fate has ordained that the men who went to the Moon to explore in peace will stay on the Moon to rest in peace. These brave men, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, know that there is no hope for their recovery. But they also know that there is hope for mankind in their sacrifice.

These two men are laying down their lives in mankind's most noble goal: the search for truth and understanding. They will be mourned by their families and friends; they will be mourned by their nation; they will be mourned by the people of the world; they will be mourned by a Mother Earth that dared send two of her sons into the unknown.

In their exploration, they stirred the people of the world to feel
as one; in their sacrifice, they bind more tightly the brotherhood of
man. In ancient days, men looked at stars and saw their heroes in the constellations. In modern times, we do much the same, but our heroes are epic men of flesh and blood.

Others will follow, and surely find their way home. Man's search
will not be denied. But these men were the first, and they will remain the foremost in our hearts. For every human being who looks up at the Moon in the nights to come will know that there is some corner of another world that is forever mankind.

— 'In the event of Moon disaster,' speech drafted by William Safire for President Richard M. Nixon to give to the nation should Neil and Buzz not be able to rejoin the command module and be faced with death on, or around, the Moon, the memo to H. R. Haldeman was dated 18 July 1969. This text remained secret for thirty years.

We have seen a wonder. There has never been one quite like it. What first steps in human history would one have chosen to witness, if one could travel in time? The Vikings coming ashore wherever they did come ashore — Newfoundland? — in North America? Or the first little boat from Columbus's ship scraping the land under her keel? Yet all of that, or any other bit of geographical discovery, we should be seeing with hindsight. On the spot, it must have seemed much more down-to-earth. People getting out of boats must have looked (and felt) very much like people getting out of boats anywhere at anytime.

No, we have had the best of it. We have seen something unique. It is right that is should have looked like something we have never seen before. In science films, perhaps — but this was real. The figure, moving so laboriously, as though it was learning, minute by minute, to walk, was a man of our own kind. Inside that gear there was a foot, a human foot. Watch. It has come, probing its way down — near to something solid. One expects to hear (there is no air, one could hear nothing) a sound. At last, it has come down. Onto a surface. Onto the surface of the Moon.

Well, we have seen a wonder. We ought to count our blessings.

— Lord C. P. Snow, 'Look' magazine, 1969.

Now approaching lunar sunrise.  And for all the people back on Earth, the crew of Apollo eight has a message that we would like to send to you. "In the Beginning god created the Heaven and the Earth. And the Earth was without form and void. And darkness was upon the face of the Deep. . . . And God saw that it was Good. . . . " And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, and a Merry Christmas. And God bless all of you, all of you on the good Earth.

— flight crew of Apollo 8, Christmas Eve, 1968.
Listen to the whole transmission  (real audio)

Men go into space .. to see whether it is the kind of place where other men, and their families and their children, can eventually follow them. A disturbingly high proportion of the intelligent young are discontented because they find the life before them intolerably confining. The Moon offers a new frontier. It is as simple and splendid as that.

— Editorial, 'The Economist' magazine, 1969.

Nothing is more symptomatic of the enervation, of the decompression of the Western imagination, than our incapacity to respond to the landings on the Moon. Not a single great poem, picture, metaphor has come of this breathtaking act, of Prometheus' rescue of Icarus or of Phaeton in flight towards the stars.

— George Steiner, lecture at the Salzburg Festival, 5 August 1994.

Frequently on the lunar surface I said to myself, "This is the Moon, that is the Earth. I'm really here, I'm really here!

— Alan Bean

It's like trying to describe what you feel when you're standing on the rim of the Grand Canyon or remembering your first love or the birth of your child. You have to be there to really know what it's like.

— Harrison 'Jack' Schmitt, regards landing on the Moon.

Suddenly, from behind the rim of the Moon, in long, slow-motion moments of immense majesty, there emerges a sparkling blue and white jewel, a light, delicate sky-blue sphere laced with slowly swirling veils of white, rising gradually like a small pearl in a thick sea of black mystery. It takes more than a moment to fully realize this is Earth . . . home.

— Edgar Mitchell

The view of the Moon that we've been having recently is really spectacular. It fills about three-quarters of the hatch window, and of course we can see the entire circumference even though part of it is in complete shadow and part of it is in earthshine. It's a view worth the price of the trip.

— Neil Armstrong

This blowing dust became increasingly thicker. It was very much like landing in a fast-moving ground fog.

— Neil Armstrong

I don't believe any pair of people had been more removed physically from the rest of the world than we were.

— Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin Jr.

Program Alarm, it's a 1202.

— Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin Jr., during final descent to the Moon.

Roger, we're go on that alarm

— Charlie Duke, Houston CapCom. The computer overflowed several more times during the first lunar descent. The historic decision to continue was communicated by young engineer Steve Bales with the classic line, "Go flight." His judgment and decisiveness was awarded with a Medal of Freedom at a White House ceremony.

Armstrong sitting in the commander's seat, spacesuit on, helmet on, plugged into electrical and environmental umbilicals, is a . . . machine himself.

— Norman Mailer

The flight was extremely normal . . . for the first 36 seconds then after that got very interesting.

— Pete Conrad, Apollo 12 commander, regards the launch during which two electrical discharges almost ended the mission.

Okay, Houston, we've had a problem here.

— John 'Jack' Swigert, Jr., Apollo 13 command module pilot, 9:07 PM Central Time, 13 April 1970.

Say again please.

— Jack Lousma, Houston CapCom in reply to Swigert.

Err Houston, we've had a problem. [pause] We've had a main B bus undervolt.

— Jim Lovell, in reply to Lousma.
Listen to the actual radio transmission (MP3)

It looks to me, looking out the hatch, that we are venting something. We are venting something into the—into the space.

— Jim Lovell, describing the Apollo 13 situation to Houston, 13 April 1970.

The world is being Americanized and technologized to its limits, and that makes it dull for some people. Reaching the Moon restores the frontier and gives us the lands beyond.

— Isaac Asimov, regards Apollo.

Houston, Apollo 11 . . . I've got the world in my window.

— Michael Collins

I really didn't appreciate the first planet [earth] until I saw the second one. . . . I cannot recall [the Moon's] tortured surface without thinking of the infinite variety the delightful planet earth offers.

— Michael Collins

We have taken to the Moon the wealth of this nation,
the vision of its political leaders,
the intelligence of its scientists,
the dedication of its engineers,
the careful craftsmanship of its workers,
and the enthusiastic support of its people.
We have brought back rocks, and I think it is a fair trade . . .
Man has always gone where he has been able to go. It's that simple.
He will continue pushing back his frontier,
no matter how far it may carry him from his homeland.

— Michael Collins

In my own view, the important achievement of Apollo was a demonstration that humanity is not forever chained to this planet, and our visions go rather further than that, and our opportunities are unlimited.

— Neil Armstrong, July 1999.

We came all this way to explore the moon, and the most important thing is that we discovered the earth.

— William Anders, Apollo 8.

As we got further and further away, it [the Earth] diminished in size. Finally it shrank to the size of a marble, the most beautiful you can imagine. That beautiful, warm, living object looked so fragile, so delicate, that if you touched it with a finger it would crumble and fall apart. Seeing this has to change a man.

— James B. Irwin, Apollo 15.

We went to the Moon as technicians; we returned as humanitarians.

— Edgar Mitchell

It means nothing to me. I have no opinion about it, and I don't care.

— Pablo Picasso, reacting to the first Moon-landing, quoted in 'The New York Times,'  21 July 1969.

Oh, 'impressed' is not the right word! Treading the soil of the moon gives one, I imagine (or rather my projected self imagines), the most remarkable romantic thrill ever experienced in the history of discovery. Of course, I rented a television set to watch every moment of their marvelous adventure. That gentle little minuet that despite their awkward suits the two men danced with such grace to the tune of lunar gravity was a lovely sight. It was also a moment when a flag means to one more than a flag usually does. I am puzzled and pained by the fact that the English weeklies ignored the absolutely overwhelming excitement of the adventure, the strange sensual exhilaration of palpating those precious pebbles, of seeing our marbled globe in the black sky, of feeling along one's spine the shiver and wonder of it. After all, Englishmen should understand that thrill, they who have been the greatest, the purest explorers. Why then drag in such irrelevant matters as wasted dollars and power politics?

 — Vladimir Nabokov, 'Strong Opinions,' 1973.

The Lunar landing of the astronauts is more than a step in history; it is a step in evolution.

— 'New York Times' editorial, 20 July 1969.

From now on we'll live in a world where man has walked on the Moon. It's not a miracle, we just decided to go.

— Jim Lovell

It's too bad, but the way American people are, now that they have all this capability, instead of taking advantage of it, they'll probably just piss it all away.

— President Lyndon B. Johnson, regards the end of the Apollo program.