So I’m in the Air force or Navy aviation and the brass comes up and says, “would you like to go into space?”
Cool, what are the particulars?
We will strap your ass onto this candle with 100 tons of hydrazine and liquid O2, and light it.
Can I pass on this one? I got a bad headache.
5.56mm
Yep, two million parts and all of them let to the lowest bidder.
(Attributed to Gus Grissom, RIP)
My guess is, those early space suits had to have large codpieces.
[snip]
Scouting for lab rabbits, more likely.
I didn’t quite hear you.
I said, “Lab rabbits.”
What’s that mean?
It means you don’t need
honest-to-God pilots.
What you ought to get is a lab rabbit
to curl up in your damn capsule...
with its heart beating...
and a wire up the kazoo.
I don’t hold with it.
I don’t either.
You want a pilot to be a ballistic missile.
And then splashdown.
Possibly get lost at sea.
There’s some things you can’t change.
Some peckerwood’s
got to take the beast up.
And some peckerwood’s got to land it.
And that peckerwood is called a pilot.
...
Delta Charlie 9, you are clear to land...
at 180 degrees.
Jos Jimnez on approach.
My name, Jos Jimnez.
Yeah, Shepard, I forgot.
You are clear at 180 degrees.
Some boys here want to talk to you
about being an astronaut.
They want to make me an astronaut?
Oh, I hope not.
Are you sure the Navy’s got good pilots?
They call them aviators in the Navy.
They say they’re better than pilots.
Gentlemen, I’d like you
to meet Alan Shepard.
What?
I’d like you to meet Alan Shepard.
Just the man we came to see.
Well. Pleasure.
You’ve heard about our project.
We’re going up against the Russians.
It’s got the highest...
Priority.
It’s a hazardous...
undertaking. In fact,
it’s extremely hazardous.
It’s so hazardous that
if you decide not to volunteer...
it will not be held against you in any way.
- Sounds dangerous.
- It is.
Count me in.
[/snip]
Didn’t John Glenn say something like “How would you feel sitting in a tin can built by the lowest bidder?”