EYES TURNED SKYWARD
APOLLO MOON MISSION QUOTES
We’ve always been looking up at the heavens, and once we had rockets man could start going up into space. The first step to the stars is to orbit our Earth. This page of my space quotes collection covers the start of the 1960’s space race, including the Mercury and Gemini progams. I have more pages for space shuttle quotes and man’s thoughts looking back at Earth.
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 240,000 miles out into deep space, and was the first human spaceflight to reach the Moon. The crew orbited the Moon ten times and then returned to Earth. The three astronauts were the first humans to see the far side of the Moon and an Earthrise.
Didn’t see what you were looking for? There are loads more quotes on the Airport page, the 9/11 aviation quotations page, and the Miscellaneous Aviation Quotes page. Or try a search of the entire database:
