mindset
Armstrong’s last presentation
“Like that of Ulysses, each of our lives is a miniature Odyssey, going to new places, seeing new things, understanding new ideas, and each day penetrating the biggest unkown of all: tomorrow. For each of us it should be, and can be, an exciting voyage. Buen Viaje!” Neil Armstrong, 2011. The picture is from his last public presentation at the first Starmus Festival on the island of Tenerife, 24 June 2011. The quote is from his submission to the 2014 book Starmus: 50 Years of Man in Space.
Not up on a shelf
“I want to live everyday all days as hard as I can. We party hard, we love hard, we jump hard because we’re reminded way too often that it can end like that. We’re very aware of how precious life is. What a gift it is. So we use it. It’s not up on a shelf still in its bubble wrap. Ours is all beat up and thrown in the corner. It’s good. You should use something that you cherish.” Jimmy Pouchert, interview at the very end of the 2024 move Fly. He died BASE jumping in 2021. The whole … Continue reading Not up on a shelf
Sooner or later
“If you’re going to go to the Moon, sooner or later you’ve got to go to the Moon.” Flight Director Glynn Linney, summing up the rationale for the Apollo 8 ‘go’ decision, NASA meetings, 1968. Quoted in the 2019 book Shoot for the Moon. This was a huge decision, a quantum step from Earth orbit flights. Apollo 8 was the first crewed spacecraft to leave Earth’s gravitational sphere of influence going out into deep space, and the first human spaceflight to reach the Moon. The crew orbited the Moon ten times without landing and then returned to Earth. The three astronauts were the first humans to see and photograph … Continue reading Sooner or later
Die doing what I love
“I definitely don’t want to die doing what I love. But I want to live doing what I love.” Eric Tucker, in the amazing video short 26,000 Days