Mike Ballard

“But it seems to me you had an experience of in some ways greater profundity—the hours you spent orbiting the moon alone, and with more time for contemplation. What a fantastic experience it must have been—alone looking down on another celestial body, like a god of space! There is a quality of aloneness that those who have not experienced it cannot know—to be alone and then to return to one’s fellow men once more. You have experienced an aloneness unknown to man before. I believe you will find that it lets you think and sense with greater clarity. Sometime in the future, I would like to listen to your own conclusions in this respect.”
― Michael Collins, Carrying the Fire: An Astronaut's Journey

“On July 20, 1969, at 9:56:20 P.M. Houston time, Neil Armstrong steps from the ladder to the surface and, as his boots touch the lunar dust, he declares, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” It was worth every sacrifice for this moment. I remember President Kennedy’s words, “We choose to go to the Moon. . . . We choose to go to the Moon in this decade, and do other things . . . not because they are easy, but because they are hard!”
― Gene Kranz, Failure is not an Option: Mission Control From Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond

“no one in Joinville had joined the Church. 14”
― The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Boldly, Nobly, and Independent: 1893–1955

“Exploration produces a mood in people, a widening of interest, a stimulation of the thought process,”
― Michael Collins, Carrying the Fire: An Astronaut's Journey