Wally Schirra Quotes

“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!”

— Wally Schirra

“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.”

— Wally Schirra

“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.”

— Wally Schirra

“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.”

— Wally Schirra

“NASA should start thinking about this planet.”

— Wally Schirra

“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.”

— Wally Schirra

“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.”

— Wally Schirra

“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.”

— Wally Schirra

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

— Wally Schirra

“Some of the wives didn't keep up with the program. It started breaking apart during the Apollo days.”

— Wally Schirra

“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.”

— Wally Schirra

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!

— Wally Schirra

“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.”

— Wally Schirra

“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.”

— Wally Schirra

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

— Wally Schirra

I played English football - soccer - instead of American football, because we couldn't afford the equipment.

— Wally Schirra

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

— Wally Schirra

“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.”

— Wally Schirra

“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.”

— Wally Schirra

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.

— Wally Schirra

“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.”

— Wally Schirra

“Feeling weightless ... it's so many things together. A feeling of pride, of healthy solitude, of dignified freedom from everything that's dirty, sticky. You feel exquisitely comfortable ... and you feel you have so much energy, such an urge to do things, such an ability to do things. And you work well, yes, you think well, without sweat, without difficulty as if the biblical curse in the sweat of thy face and in sorrow no longer exists, As if you've been born again.”

— Wally Schirra

“As a child I went to a circus. They had a man shot out of a cannon into a net. I became intrigued with what was going on.”

— Wally Schirra

“A little levity is appropriate in a dangerous trade.”

— Wally Schirra

I know enough about the moon to know how unpleasant and inhospitable it is ... I know enough about Mars to know that you can't live there, you can't settle it. Mars and the moon are two ugly islands. So then, you say, what's the point of going to them? The point is to be able to say I've been there, I've set foot on them, and I can go further to look for beautiful islands.

— Wally Schirra

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.

— Wally Schirra

“I left Earth three times and found no other place to go. Please take care of Spaceship Earth.”

— Wally Schirra

“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.”

— Wally Schirra

“Levity is the lubricant of a crisis. We resort to jokes, pranks and good natured kidding to relieve tension, stress and boredom.”

— Wally Schirra