Neil Armstrong Quotes
284 Neil Armstrong Quotes
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After Apollo, NASA conjured a grand plan to expand human presence in space and include one or more permanent terminals in Earth orbit, craft to depart from and after return to the terminal from various places in the solar system, and reusable craft to service the entire enterprise by shuttling back and forth between Earth orbit and the Earth's surface. Advocates were unable to persuade the establishment that that was all doable with the resources available, and only the last piece, the shuttle orbiter, was funded.
Neil Armstrong
From time to time, new grand plans have been announced, only to decay and dissolve from an inadequate level of public support, as interpreted by their elected officials. Now our president has introduced a new initiative with renewed emphasis on exploration of our solar system and expansion of the human frontiers. This proposal has substantial merit and promise. The success of that endeavor will be dependent on overcoming principle concerns of cost and risk. Our economy can certainly afford an effort of this magnitude, but the public must believe that the benefits to society deserve the investment. Noted the advancement of knowledge, the rate of progress is proportional to the risk encountered. The public at large may well be more risk-adverse than the individuals in our business, but to limit the progress in the name of eliminating risk is no virtue. The success of the endeavor will also be dependent on the degree to which the aerospace community, all of us -- government, industry, and academia -- can coalesce their forces and converge on a common goal.
Neil Armstrong
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.
Neil Armstrong
I never thought that I, Neil Alden Armstrong, was every going to set foot on the
moon. Sure I definitely wanted to, but I never thought than I would be here in the Lunar
Module, Eagle, ready to do so.
Neil Armstrong
While the only living organism within a thousand feet of me, Buzz Aldrin, is asleep, I am not. I don’t think a man would get that much sleep knowing that he is about to attempt what any human has every dared to do, to step on the moon. I guess I am just nervous. Yes, I am just a little nervous.
Neil Armstrong
Lately, I have been thinking what would happen if something went wrong while we are on the mission. What if Eagle’s leg breaks and we are left on the moon to whither away to nothing? What if we never make it back to Earth? What if? Well, I presume that I am
hallucinating. Now that I think of it, this is the first time I have ever considered getting
lost in space. The training schedule was so tight; I barely had time to breathe. However,
I believe that was for best, because if I worried, I might have led us into deeper trouble.
Maybe I should just relax, get some sleep, and I can worry about that later.
Neil Armstrong
Science has not yet mastered prophecy. We predict too much for the next year and yet far too little for the next 10.
Neil Armstrong
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.
Neil Armstrong
The one thing I regret was that my work required an enormous amount of my time, and a lot of travel.
Neil Armstrong
As we prepared for our landing, I asked Buzz, “Were you ever afraid that
something would go wrong?” “I guess I was,” he said tranquilly. “But it is too late now,
to turn back. Besides, I highly doubt anything will go wrong, at least nothing we won’t
be able to fix.” His words brought some comfort to me, and we proceeded with our
preparations.
Neil Armstrong
It’s time to land on the moon. Gosh, I hope this works. I’m not certain what
to say when I step on the moon. I’ve been thinking for a while now, but I have nothing.
Neil Armstrong
The fuel was low! I’d seen this before, but it hadn’t presented itself as a problem then. We had just enough to land….fast. Be calm, I told myself, that always helped. I accelerated Eagle towards a clearing. After my heart nearly tripled its speed, I heard a thud, then joyous cheering from base.
Neil Armstrong
The Eagle has landed.
Neil Armstrong
That’s one small step for a man.” I paused, and for a split second, I thought about how many people had worked their entire lives to make this possible. Moreover, how lucky I was to be here. “One giant leap for mankind.”
Neil Armstrong
We only had a few minutes to ourselves. I sauntered around for a while, and then
looked up at that eternal sky. I saw that familiar, bright, beautiful planet, Earth. That’s
when I comprehended how far away from home I really was. Then it hit me. I was truly
on the moon. My life’s dream, fulfilled. I am on the moon.
Neil Armstrong
We were involved in doing what many thought to be impossible, putting humans on Earth’s moon.
Neil Armstrong
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.
Neil Armstrong
[On going to the Moon] Science fiction writers thought it would be possible. H. G. Wells, Jules Verne, and other authors found ways to get people to the moon. But none of those writers foresaw any possibility of the lunar explorers being able to communicate with Earth, transmit data, position information, or transmit moving pictures of what they saw back to Earth.
Neil Armstrong
I remember all the preflight testing we were doing on that little black and white image orthicon TV camera. In all that testing, I never saw a picture successfully transmitted. But the chaps assured us that it would, in fact, work. And it did. And I was probably the most surprised person in the human race when Mission Control announced they were getting a picture. So I was never concerned that the picture quality was less than optimum. I was just amazed that there was any picture at all!
Neil Armstrong
[On being advised by the chief Magistrate of Langholm Scotland of a 400 year law that ordered him to hang any Armstrong found in the town] I have read a good deal of the history of this region and it is my feeling that the Armstrongs have been dreadfully misrepresented.
Neil Armstrong
[On leaving NASA in 1971 and returning to a small farm in Ohio] I have chosen to bring my family up in as normal an environment as possible.
Neil Armstrong
[On claims he was retreating to a Castle and pulling up the drawbridge] You know, those of us who live out in the hinterlands think that people that live inside the Beltway [As Michael Collins did] are the ones that have the problems.
Neil Armstrong
[On growing up in the 1930’s] The small towns, the ones that I grew up in, were slow to come out of the depression. We were not deprived. [His father’s annual salary was just above the national average of $2,000], but there was never a great deal of money around. On that score we had it no worse and no better than thousands of other families.
Neil Armstrong
[On his second job in a bakery around 10 years of age] I probably got the job because of my small size; I could crawl inside the mixing vats at night and clean them out. The favorite of the senior bakers was the hot buttered bread, but the greatest fringe benefit for me was getting to eat the ice cream and home made chocolates.
Neil Armstrong
[On boyhood night dreams] I can’t say they were related to flying in any way. As I look back on it, it doesn’t seem like there was much relationship, except for being suspended above the ground. I tried it later, when I was awake; it didn’t work.
Neil Armstrong
[On falling off a fifteen foot tree as an eight year old] Never to trust a dead limb. I climbed trees, like all boys. I never thought of it as being related to my character.
Neil Armstrong
I began to focus on aviation probably at age eight or nine, inspired by what I’d read and seen about aviation and building model aircraft.
Neil Armstrong
I usually hung my models with string from the ceiling of my bedroom. I had put a lot of work in them and didn’t want to crash them, so when I flew one of those airplanes it was a rare occasion.
Neil Armstrong
My focus was more on the building than the flying, you couldn’t have success with the model that wasn’t built well.
Neil Armstrong
While I was still in elementary school my intention was to be – or hope to be – an aircraft designer. I later went into piloting because I thought a good designer ought to know the operational aspects of an airplane.
Neil Armstrong
[With his models at Purdue University] I would win a number of events or get second place.
Neil Armstrong
I absorbed a lot of new knowledge and found people, some of them World War II veterans, who had vastly more experience and intuition on how to be successful flying.
Neil Armstrong
[On learning to fly] That’s the way I built up flight time, by doing slow time [to coat the valves with high-octane gasoline] after top cylinder overhauls.
Neil Armstrong
He was a little grease monkey out there, and for everything he did, why they gave him flying lessons. He learned to fly. [Neil’s mother]
Neil Armstrong
There were a lot of people around town talking, telling [aviation] stories all the time, and as a young guy I was absorbing all of that.
Neil Armstrong
[On paying seven dollars for a taxi ride, it seemed] An astronomical amount of money because I could fly the plane for seven dollars an hour.
Neil Armstrong
[On getting into engineering at Purdue University] I couldn’t have been happier with what I was doing, going into university.
Neil Armstrong
[To his parents at the end of second semester at University] Thanks for the laundry, letters and the girl Scout cookies. The other fellows saw them and when I got home last night, they were nearly all gone.
Neil Armstrong
There’s just a lot more intensity to combat, and more consequence to making a bad move. These guys tend to be people who like challenges and like to meet them head-on.
Neil Armstrong
[On the chance of dying] It’s a reality that you live with, and I guess you think the odds are with you, if you keep your head and don’t do anything foolish… The naval aviators that I knew were determined to do a first-class job… They were doing a job they thought was important.
Neil Armstrong
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