Houston Astronaut Quotes

That’s how I approach just about everything. I spend my life getting ready to play “Rocket Man.” I picture the most demanding challenge; I visualize what I would need to know how to do to meet it; then I practice until I reach a level of competence where I’m comfortable that I’ll be able to perform. It’s what I’ve always done, ever since I decided I wanted to be an astronaut in 1969, and that conscious, methodical approach to preparation is the main reason I got to Houston. I never stopped getting ready. Just in case.

When I review my travels among the astronauts, my mind's eye goes first to the Houston shopping mall where Alan Bean sat for hours after returning from space, just eating ice cream and watching the people swirl around him, enraptured by the simple yet miraculous fact they they were there and alive in that moment, and so was he.

They have the impression that between launches, we pretty much sit around in a waiting room in Houston trying to catch our breath before the next liftoff. Since you usually only hear about

Over the years, I’ve realized that in any new situation, whether it involves an elevator or a rocket ship, you will almost certainly be viewed in one of three ways. As a minus one: actively harmful, someone who creates problems. Or as a zero: your impact is neutral and doesn’t tip the balance one way or the other. Or you’ll be seen as a plus one: someone who actively adds value. Everyone wants to be a plus one, of course. But proclaiming your plus-oneness at the outset almost guarantees you’ll be perceived as a minus one, regardless of the skills you bring to the table or how you actually perform. This might seem self-evident, but it can’t be, because so many people do it. During the final selection round for each new class of NASA astronauts, for example, there’s always at least one individual who’s hell-bent on advertising him- or herself as a plus one. In fact, all the applicants who make it to the final 100 and are invited to come to Houston for a week have impressive qualifications and really are plus ones—in their own fields. But invariably, someone decides to take it a little further and behave like An Astronaut, one who already knows just about everything there is to know—the meaning of every acronym, the purpose of every valve on a spacesuit—and who just might be willing, if asked nicely, to go to Mars tomorrow. Sometimes the motivation is over-eagerness rather than arrogance, but the effect is the same.

Outer space is fucking terrifying. I’m thankful for the ozone layer and the gravitational pull of the moon and whatnot, but they’d have to tie me like a spit-roasted pig to send me out there. The universe keeps expanding and getting colder, chunks of our galaxy are sucked away, black holes hurl through space at millions of miles per hour, and solar superstorms flare up at the drop of a hat. Meanwhile NASA astronauts are out there in their frankly inadequate suits, drinking liters of their own recycled urine, getting alligator skin on the top of their feet, and shitting rubber balls that float around at eye level. Their cerebrospinal fluid expands and presses on their eyeballs to the point that their eyesight deteriorates, their gut bacteria are a shitshow—no pun intended—and gamma rays that could literally pulverize them in less than a second wander around. But you know what’s even worse? The smell. Space smells like a toilet full of rotten eggs, and there’s no escape. You’re just stuck there until Houston allows you to come back home. So believe me when I say: I’m grateful every damn day for those two extra inches.

Early on December 25, Houston time, Lovell missed a step. He meant to enter Program 23 and then select Star 01. Instead, he entered Program 01 into his computer. An alarm rang out. Suddenly, Apollo 8’s guidance system reset itself, losing all memory of how the ship was oriented in space. As a result of Lovell’s mistake, the guidance system now believed Apollo 8 to be back on the launchpad at Cape Kennedy.

you are interested in learning more about NASA, the space shuttle program, astronomy, or astrophysics, here are some of the books I loved reading during the writing of this novel. Shuttle, Houston: My Life in the Center Seat of Mission Control by Paul Dye Apollo 13 by Jim Lovell and Jeffrey Kluger The New Guys: The Historic Class of Astronauts That Broke Barriers and Changed the Face of Space Travel by Meredith Bagby The Six: The Untold Story of America’s First Women Astronauts by Loren Grush The Milky Way: An Autobiography of Our Galaxy by Moiya McTier Cosmos by Carl Sagan The Art of Stargazing by Dr. Maggie Aderin-Pocock The Science of “Interstellar” by Kip Thorne

This Orchard Is My Universe by Stewart Stafford This orchard is my universe, The apples, planets aligned, Pips form a fertile starfield, Juice waves crash behind. Leaves fall as dying comets, Avian asteroids zigzag wild, Squirrels as planetary dust, Moles, lunar cratering, mild. Solar storm bows and enters, Green-fingered power dearth, Houston's black hole problem, This astronaut sucked to Earth. © Stewart Stafford, 2024. All rights reserved.

Think back to the Apollo 13 story. The astronauts and engineers had spent years planning for the launch. They had built a core team inspired by the vision of another flight to the moon. Despite all of that planning, they hit that gut-wrenching moment and said the famous words "Houston we have a problem.

Big Bang

On his previous Apollo 10 mission, a “dry run” for Apollo 11, Geno had radioed back to Houston that riding around the Moon was a piece of cake. “It was definitely not a piece of cake for me,” said Barbara. “If you think going to the Moon is hard, try staying at home.

Shuttle, Houston: My Life in the Center Seat of Mission Control by Paul Dye Apollo 13 by Jim Lovell and Jeffrey Kluger The New Guys: The Historic Class of Astronauts That Broke Barriers and Changed the Face of Space Travel by Meredith Bagby The Six: The Untold Story of America’s First Women Astronauts by Loren Grush The Milky Way: An Autobiography of Our Galaxy by Moiya McTier Cosmos by Carl Sagan The Art of Stargazing by Dr. Maggie Aderin-Pocock The Science of “Interstellar” by Kip Thorne About the Author Taylor Jenkins Reid is the New York Times bestselling author of nine novels, including Carrie Soto Is Back, Malibu Rising, Daisy Jones & The Six, and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo.