Space Shuttle Quotes

• The launch of a space shuttle can still make you weep with amazement and wonder, if you happen to be watching it.

  Hanna Rosin

  Space, Wonder, Amazement

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• The space shuttle is a better and safer rocket than it was before the Challenger accident.

  Sally Ride

  Space, Rockets, Accidents

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• After the Challenger accident, NASA put in a lot of time to improve the safety of the space shuttle to fix the things that had gone wrong.

  Sally Ride

  Space, Safety, Gone

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• The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives. We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved good-bye and 'slipped the surly bonds of earth' to 'touch the face of God.

  Ronald Reagan

  Goodbye, Morning, Journey

  The Space Shuttle "Challenger" Tragedy Address, delivered 28 January 1986

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• By 1931, after a few years' experience of flying scheduled airlines, those planes were operating at roughly 600 times the safety of the space shuttle. I look at safety not in terms of fatalities per passenger-mile, but when you get in and close the door, what is the risk of dying on this flight?

  Burt Rutan

  Doors, Years, Space

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• I think the Space Shuttle is worth one billion dollars a launch. I think that it is worth two billion dollars for what it does. I think the Shuttle is worth it for the work it does.

  Pete Conrad

  Thinking, Two, Space

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• The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives.

  Ronald Reagan

  Space, Surly, Crew

  The Space Shuttle "Challenger" Tragedy Address, delivered 28 January 1986

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• Technology is supposed to make our lives easier, allowing us to do things more quickly and efficiently. But too often it seems to make things harder, leaving us with fifty-button remote controls, digital cameras with hundreds of mysterious features and book-length manuals, and cars with dashboard systems worthy of the space shuttle.

  James Surowiecki

  Book, Technology, Space

  "Feature Presentation". www.newyorker.com. May 28, 2007.

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• For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled.

  Richard P. Feynman

  Inspirational, Nature, Science

  Rogers Commission Report on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident appendix (1986)

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• The crew of the shuttle Columbia did not return safely to Earth; yet we can pray that all are safely home.

  George W. Bush

  Home, Science, Safety

  The Space Shuttle "Columbia" Tragedy Speech to the Nation, delivered 1 February 2003, White House Cabinet Room

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• The thing I'll remember most about the flight is that it was fun. In fact, I'm sure it was the most fun that I'll ever have in my life.

  Sally Ride

  Fun, Space, Facts

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• The pressure suit helps if something goes wrong during launch or re-entry - astronauts have a way to parachute off the shuttle. The suits protect you from loss of pressure in case of emergency.

  Sally Ride

  Loss, Suits, Way

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• Well, with so many space shuttle missions that we've done, I think it's just sort of natural that each one hasn't necessarily gotten the attention that the early ones did.

  Ellen Ochoa

  Thinking, Space, Attention

  "Exploring Space, Unearthing Human Emotions". "Tell Me More" with Michel Martin, www.npr.org. July 13, 2011.

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• But technology is the real skin of our species. Humanity, correctly seen in the context of the last five hundred years, is an extruder of technological material. We take in matter that has a low degree of organization; we put it through mental filters, and we extrude jewelry, gospels, space shuttles. This is what we do. We are like coral animals embedded in a technological reef of extruded psychic objects. All our tool making implies our belief in an ultimate tool. That tool is the flying saucer, or the soul, exteriorized in three-dimensional space.

  Terence McKenna

  Real, Technology, Animal

  Terence McKenna (1998). “True Hallucinations: And, the Archaic Revival”, M J F Books

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• And yet ... But what if ... I want to do something impossible. Something astounding and unheard of. I want to scrub the moss off the Space Shuttle and fly Julie to the moon and colonise it, or float a capsized cruise ship to some distant island where no one will protest us, or just harness the magic that brings me into the brains of the Living and use it to bring Julie into mine, because it's warm in here, it's quiet and lovely, and in here we aren't an absurd juxtaposition, we are perfect.

  Isaac Marion

  Moon, Islands, Space

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• New Rule: Since our new national position on science is, "Screw it, we prefer witchcraft," let's not just retire the Space Shuttle Atlantis. Let's drive it to one of the five stupidest States and have the locals beat it with sticks. Putting it in a museum is too dangerous. Someone could steal it, fly it into space and notice we revolve around the sun.

  Bill Maher

  Museums, Space, Atlantis

  Bill Maher (2011). “The New New Rules: A Funny Look at How Everybody but Me Has Their Head Up Their Ass”, p.162, Penguin

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• Science, the largest religion of the twentieth century, had become tarnished by images of exploding space shuttles, crack babies, and a generation of complacent Americans who allowed the television to raise their children. People were looking for something - I think they just didn't know what. And even though they were once again starting to open their eyes to the world of magic and the arcane that had been with them all the while, they still thought I must be some kind of joke.

  Jim Butcher

  Baby, Children, Eye

  Jim Butcher (2010). “The Dresden Files Collection 1-6”, p.14, Penguin

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• When I was a kid, I was a bit of a space geek. I loved the space program and all things NASA. I would read books about our solar system; I had pictures of the Space Shuttle on my bedroom wall. And yes, I even went to Space Camp.

  Simon Sinek

  Wall, Book, Kids

  "Look On The Bright Side" by Simon Sinek, www.askmen.com.

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• In 2009 I went up on the space shuttle. I was in space for 16 days and docked at the space station for 11 days. The entire crew did five space walks, of which I was involved with three of them. When you're doing a space walk, you always have a buddy with you. It's a very dangerous environment when you're doing a space walk.

  Thomas Marshburn

  Space, Three, Environment

  "My Conversation With an Astronaut". Interview with Ben Arnon, www.huffingtonpost.com. September 11, 2012.

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• Dad, one of my first memories is of sharing my worry with you about the space shuttle poking holes in the atmosphere and letting out all of Earth's air.

  Brent Weeks

  Funny, Memories, Dad

  Brent Weeks (2009). “The Way Of Shadows: Book 1 of the Night Angel”, p.419, Hachette UK

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• On the wall of his rehabilitation room was a picture of the space shuttle blasting off, autographed by every astronaut now at NASA. On top of the picture it says, "We found nothing is impossible." That should be our motto.

  Christopher Reeve

  Wall, Space, Rehabilitation

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• Know why people run marathons? …Because running is rooted in our collective imagination, and our imagination is rooted in running. Language, art, science; space shuttles, Starry Night, intravascular surgery; they all had their roots in our ability to run. Running was the superpower that made us human — which means its a superpower all humans posses.

  Christopher McDougall

  Running, Art, Mean

  Christopher McDougall (2010). “Born to Run: The hidden tribe, the ultra-runners, and the greatest race the world has never seen”, p.239, Profile Books

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• A few years ago it dawned on me that everybody past a certain age ... pretty much constantly dreams of being able to escape from their lives. They don't want to be who they are any more. They want out. This list includes Thurston Howell the Third, Ann-Margret, the cat members of Rent, Václav Havel, space shuttle astronauts and Snuffleupagus. It's universal.

  Douglas Coupland

  Dream, Cat, Past

  Douglas Coupland (2011). “The Gum Thief: A Novel”, p.1, Bloomsbury Publishing USA

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• My job in space will be to observe and write a journal. I am also going to be teaching a class for students on earth about life in space and on the space shuttle and conducting experiments.

  Christa McAuliffe

  Jobs, Teaching, Writing

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• I will go around the space shuttle and give a guided tour of the major areas and describe what is done in each area. This will be called The Ultimate Field Trip.

  Christa McAuliffe

  Journey, Space, Giving

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