Wally Schirra Quotes

We have managed to hang in for 55 years, which isn`t bad. My wife says our marriage has lasted so long because I was away half the time!

I played English football - soccer - instead of American football, because we couldn`t afford the equipment.

Within NASA, there were lots of things that were not appropriate to bring out to the public, because the press did not handle it well.

As a Naval officer, I was trained, essentially bred, to be a military aviator. I was a Naval officer on assignment, not an employee of NASA.

Apollo was a big, unwieldy vehicle. I had a problem with the flight controllers over that. It would try to fare its way like an airplane.

Kennedy had made a mess in Cuba at the Bay of Pigs. He had to do something to look good. The Apollo program of going to the Moon was quite a goal,.

NASA should start thinking about this planet.

Some of the wives didn`t keep up with the program. It started breaking apart during the Apollo days.

When a test pilot comes off a flight, there is typically another pilot who is going to take it up, and he believes in the debriefing. You don`t keep something to yourself.

At the end of our NASA careers, no one had a place for us in the military.

John Glenn craved the publicity. I think even John would admit that. When he went into politics, that became pretty obvious! He knew how to do public relations.

Another real problem was over putting our helmets on for re-entry, because we all had severe head colds. They couldn`t come up there and make us. Houston, you have a problem!

Kids today don`t want to get married. Too many of their friends have been married and divorced already. They just don`t believe in it.

When a man looks across a street, sees a pretty girl, and waves at her, that`s not a rendezvous, that`s a passing acquaintance. When he walks across the street and nibbles on her ear, that`s a rendezvous!

I don`t go along with going to Moon first to build a launch pad to go to Mars. We should go to Mars from Earth orbit. We have already been to the Moon; we`ve already practiced.

Each test pilot I know considers him, or herself, now that there are women, to be the very best. It`s very demeaning to step down the ladder once in a while.

In Mercury, you couldn`t translate. You could just change attitude. But you were actually flying it like a flying machine in Gemini.

I saw the booster, not Sputnik, flying by, and I said, maybe this is the way we should be going, not just sitting back waiting for something to happen.

He who commands an Apollo flight will not command a second one.

When people have asked if I`d like to go in the Shuttle, I said you don`t get to fly it, except for landing, which I`d love to do. I wouldn`t go unless I could command it.

We spent a lot of time in simulators. We were going to do it right.

I had always wanted to go to the Navy. As a young kid, I was intrigued by a Naval Officer with the beautiful brown shoes and sharp gold wings.

I remember seeing war hero Jimmy Doolittle fly a Gee Bee racer there. He was my childhood hero. Many years later, I was lucky enough to go hunting with him.

Apollo was just too big, like flying a big transport airplane, which fighter pilots don`t really revere. Gemini was just about the right size.

Dad went to Canada to learn how to fly with the Royal Canadian Air Force. He took me on my first airplane ride, where I could have a hand on the stick.

I have fought the centrifuge ever since. When I visited Star City in Russia, I told them, you guys don`t need a centrifuge, they are a waste of time.

I don`t think the space station will ever do anything for exploration. Putting people up there for a year or more is the only way you will get anywhere near the exploration concept.

I`ve always thought space station is a great name. It should be like a gas station where we go for service and supplies before heading further out.

I was told having a website would help me. I have yet to figure out why my life story needs to be on the web.