statements said under the compulsion of an emotional moment.
The astronauts had no quotable excited utterances ��� no surprise
of the heart.
NM: Nothing but ���a small step for man and a mighty step for
mankind.��� It���s not that good a quote, nothing remarkable. It doesn���t
reach. But a requirement of NASA was to be deadly dull. These
astronauts, however, had a double life. They all had Corvettes
in those days and they would drive at 100 miles an hour down
those Texas highways, one foot away from each other. When they
cut up, they cut up. I���m not talking about Armstrong, Aldrin,
and Collins, who were on Apollo 11, because they were probably
the purest of the pure, looking back on it. They took the three
most dependable guys for that shot. Let���s say they took the six or
nine guys out of the pool of 25, or whatever they had, and said,
���Among these nine are the guys we can count on.��� And when
they had those three, they said this is a very good three, ���Let���s go
with them.���
CB: To be conscious of the excitement would have been a
distraction from working.
NM: The work was prodigious. The amount of detailed work
tended to keep them from getting excited. Also, the whole idea
was not to be excited. If you get excited, the awe of the experience
is going to weigh on you, and we don���t want that. In order not
to feel fear, you���ve got to explore every realm of the unknown
technologically, which they did. They were made completely
familiar about every aspect of the job, but ultimately some essence
was completely unfamiliar.
CB: I want to make a connection between the moon and the
HYLAND
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