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Liftoff is very, very gentle, contrary to what most people think. Because you remember, the weight of the booster - the amount of thrust on the engine is just barely enough to get the booster underway. And so it's a very gentle liftoff, contrary to what most people think when they see all the fire and smoke of launch.

John Glenn

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John Glenn
Age: 95 †
Born: 1921
Born: July 18
Died: 2016
Died: December 8
Aircraft Pilot
Astronaut
Businessperson
Former United States Senator
Military Officer
Politician
Screenwriter
Test Pilot
Cambridge
Ohio
John Herschel Glenn Jr.
Remember
Barely
Enough
Engines
Think
Gentle
Thinking
Smoke
Booster
People
Contrary
Underway
Weight
Launch
Amount
Engine
Fire
Thrust

More quotes by John Glenn

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I think that it's good for us to be able to travel in space and do research in space, and I emphasize the research, because space travel to me is far more than just seeing how far we can go.
John Glenn
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I think no matter where we go in space to me the important thing is not only getting there and getting back, but it's also doing research, because that opens up as a possibility with that new distance of travel in space.
John Glenn
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To get your name well enough known that you can run for a public office, some people do it by being great lawyers or philanthropists or business people or work their way up the political ladder. I happened to become known from a different route.
John Glenn
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We had a lot of confidence that there was going to be a successful mission. We weren't off on some suicide effort, certainly [with Friendship 7].
John Glenn
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We used to joke about canned men, putting people in a can and seeing how far you can send them and bring them back. That's not the purpose of this program... Space is a laboratory, and we go into it to work and learn the new.
John Glenn
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Zero G and I feel fine.
John Glenn
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I am a stranger. I come in peace. Take me to your leader and there will be a massive reward for you in eternity.
John Glenn
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That was a real fireball.
John Glenn
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There is still no cure for the common birthday.
John Glenn
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I think in America we have to get back to being the best educated general citizenry in the world and make sure we do not lose our lead in research, if we're to have a leadership position in the world.
John Glenn
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This is a day we have managed to avoid for a quarter of a century. We've talked about it before and speculated about it, and it finally has occurred. We hoped we could push this day back forever.
John Glenn
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That whole day [ of the space flight] is very vividly impressed on my memory because it was such a new experience. We hadn't done that before. And then I've recalled it so often since then I think that it's a - it's remained very vivid over the past 50 years, seems to me like about a week or two instead of 50 years.
John Glenn
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It was the time of the Cold War and so there were was a lot of pressure on the - to get going and the Russians were claiming that they were - Soviets were claiming they were ahead of us in technology. And so it was against that backdrop that the early space flights took off.
John Glenn
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America is in a newly competitive position around the world, and unless we keep our lead in education for all of our people and do the research along with that, other nations will start outdoing us and they will be leaders in the world.
John Glenn
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I don't know what you could say about a day in which you have seen four beautiful sunsets.
John Glenn
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If we could do something that enhances the body's immune system here on Earth, it would be a tremendous step forward in the fight against disease and cancer and other things.
John Glenn
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If there is one thing I’ve learned in my years on this planet, it’s that the happiest and most fulfilled people I’ve known are those who devoted themselves to something bigger and more profound than merely their own self interest.
John Glenn
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Just because I'm 77 doesn't mean I don't have a dream.
John Glenn
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Too many people, when they get old, think that they have to live by the calendar.
John Glenn
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Because now, you know, it's going to be a number of years yet before we have our own new boosters and new spacecraft to go to our own International Space Station and proceed with all the research that we spent $100 billion putting up there to give us that research capability for the future for people right here on Earth.
John Glenn