“…A career in flying was like climbing one of those ancient Babylonian pyramids made up of a dizzy progression of steps and ledges, a ziggurat, a pyramid extraordinarily high and steep; and the idea was to prove at every foot of the way up that pyramid that you were one of the elected and anointed ones who had the right stuff and could move higher and higher and even-ultimately, God willing, one day-that you might be able to join that special few at the very top, that elite who had the capacity to bring tears to men’s eyes, the very Brotherhood of the right stuff indeed.”
whoa, awesome pic of Chuck Yeager riding the x-1
Amazing. Going to chase the demon.
Have you guys hear the new Jobim album? It’s quite fantastic.
(via nasalove)
We Tease…
But Carrying the Fire is the only astronaut biography I’ve ever read where I’ve kept a pencil nearby to underline passages because of the clarity of observation or the sheer beauty of the writing. Mike really was the hipster artist of the group, with the guts of a pilot and the mind of a poet, and he really deserves credit for that. How lucky were we to have that sort of person orbiting the moon, while history was made below him, reflecting upon the impact of their mission, the solitude of space and the human condition.
I’d love to have an hour to hang out and chat with the guy.
The years accelerate like a rising rocket, and that scares me more than the ride itself. Like most old people, I am crotchety, and—at seventy-eight—disapproving of younger customs and developments, such as the adulation of celebrities and the inflation of heroism.
Heroes abound, no doubt about it, but don’t count astronauts among them. The passerby who administers mouth-to-mouth, to a stricken stranger, the nurse in the emergency room who forges on while tasting spattered blood, the soldier who throws himself on a grenade to save his buddies: these people are undeniably heroes, and should be revered as such. We astronauts were good; we worked hard; we did our jobs to near perfection, but it was what we had signed on to do. It was not, in the words describing the Congressional Medal of Honor, “above and beyond the call of duty.” It was not heroism.
Yeah, I was part of the US Manned Spaceflight Program. You probably never heard of it. Which is why I hate you.
You don’t listen to Mumford & Sons?
John, set coordinates to splashdown at Urban Outfitters.
(via Circa 1969 Rare Vintage Ephemera Packaging by bananastrudel)
…No but seriously, who sat down and said, “You know what Apollo 11 could market? Pomade!”
I also love “One giant leap for hair!” Now I’m going to think of other horrible NASA hair puns. (“Ever since he stopped using pomade, Bob’s dating life has been a magnificent desolation.”)
Yeah, they put my picture on it. Whatever. Don’t use it. Don’t need it.
Mike Collins’ answer in 2009 to: “You are starting to sound a little grumpy. Are you grumpy?”
…I love this guy.
(via asonlynasacan)
