I was the most emotional of the flight directors. Space really got me all honked up.
Interpretation
The quote expresses the strong emotions and personal connection that come with overseeing space missions.
Gene Kranz, a flight director during NASA's space missions, reflects on his deep emotional investment in the challenges and triumphs of space exploration. His admission of being 'honked up' illustrates the profound impact that the responsibilities and successes of space missions had on him, highlighting the human element behind the technical achievements in aerospace.
In practice
In a speech about teamwork during a project launch.
There's an awful lot of future out there, and what you got to do, is you go to out and grab it, wrestle it to the ground, accept the challenges, and then decide. You've got the skills. You've got the knowledge. You've got the love, and you're capable of moving forward and making a great life yourself.
I did everything by the numbers. I had checklists upon checklists. If I wasn't ahead of everybody on my team, I didn't feel I was doing my job.
No way can you ever, ever, ever evidence confusion, concern, lack of understanding. You have to be in charge. You are the guy. You have to be cooler than cool, smarter than smart.
You can not operate in this room unless you believe that you are Superman, and whatever happens, you're capable of solving the problem.
I just felt that space was the next thing coming in aviation. It was higher, faster. It had the risk.
We've never lost an American in space, we're sure as hell not gonna lose one on my watch! Failure is not an option.
Shaped a little like a loaf of French country bread, our brain is a crowded chemistry lab, bustling with nonstop neural conversations.Imagine the brain, that shiny mound of being, that mouse-gray parliament of cells, that dream factory, that petit tyrant inside a ball of bone, that huddle of neurons calling all the plays, that little everywhere, that fickle pleasuredome, that wrinkled wardrobe of selves stuffed into the skull like too many clothes into a gym bag.
If I could explain it to the average person, it wouldn't have been worth the Nobel Prize.
One day the world will look upon research upon animals as it now looks upon research on human beings.
A scientist is as weak and human as any man, but the pursuit of science may ennoble him even against his will.
I try to show the public that chemistry, biology, physics, astrophysics is life. It is not some separate subject that you have to be pulled into a corner to be taught about.
Spacewalking trumps everything. Viscerally, it is a phenomenal place to be; to be able to glance right and see the world, glance left and see the universe, and realise for a moment that you're holding on to your known existence with one hand. That's the thing.
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