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There had been a number of failures but we weren't going out to ride a failure. And we felt they'd corrected all the difficulties with the boosters before that time and the launch problems. And so we had a lot of confidence that there was going to be a successful mission. We weren't off on some suicide effort, certainly.

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.
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Boosters
Effort
Suicide
Corrected
Successful
Difficulty
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Felt
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Difficulties
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Failure
Ride
Problems
Missions

More quotes by John Glenn

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America put more money into research, into the new and the unknown than any nation in history, and the same thing with education, and those two things led us into a worldwide preeminence in a very short period of time.
John Glenn
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The most important thing we can do is inspire young minds and to advance the kind of science, math and technology education that will help youngsters take us to the next phase of space travel.
John Glenn
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As far as actually setting up colonies of people who would live their whole lives in space, I think we're a long ways from doing that yet, and I think we have many, many decades before we could be able to even consider something like that.
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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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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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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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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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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Just because I'm 77 doesn't mean I don't have a dream.
John Glenn
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To sit back and let fate play its hand out and never influence it is not the way man was meant to operate.
John Glenn
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There is still no cure for the common birthday.
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
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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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Too many people, when they get old, think that they have to live by the calendar.
John Glenn
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I think we're a long ways from really putting colonies of people out there who would live their whole lives out there in space. I don't see that happening for quite some time.
John Glenn
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When others kid me about being bald, I simply tell them that the way I figure it, the good Lord only gave men so many hormones, and if others want to waste theirs on growing hair, that's up to them.
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.
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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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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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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