Quotes by Andrew Chaikin

“Its sort of a house of cards in the sense that all of the hopes for human space flight have been pinned on that station,”

“Its sort of a house of cards in the sense that all of the hopes for human space flight have been pinned on that station. And if they cant complete it, its an enormous investment whose potential will be unrealized.”

“The big difference between NASA of the 60s and NASA of the 90s is that in every way NASA was a young organization back then, ... not only in a demographic sense but also in terms of the life of the agency.”

“It was like telling a high school team that in eight years they were going to have to win the World Series. Its not impossible but not something that you would necessarily think they could do.”

“They met the challenge. They met it beautifully. The energy that flowed through NASA at that time, the excitement, the adrenaline, it all stemmed from the fact that space had become very crucial to the nations reputation and strength in the world.”

“NASA never really adapted to that new paradigm.”

“NASA had to adjust to that cruel reality.”

“The flight controllers, the people who manned the trenches in mission control, these were kids. They were in their 20s and 30s. And they were controlling a moon mission.”

“What will ever replace the Cold War as a driver and the impetus for doing these big space explorations?”

“I can tell you with some degree of confidence that in the next millennium well see human beings walk on other planets and even perhaps go to other stars,”

Its almost as if Kennedy grabbed a decade out of the 21st century, Cernan said, and spliced it into the 1960s. That helps to explain why, as I wrote in 1993 in the preface of this book, we werent entirely ready for Apollo, and why we have struggled to absorb its impact ever since it happened. How could the most futuristic thing humans have ever done be so far in the past?