The Right Stuff - Debate Over Spacecraft Design Features
Gordon Cooper:
Uh, where are you putting the window?
German Scientist #1:
Window? There is no window.
Gus Grissom:
No window? What about the hatch?
German Scientist #1:
The hatch?
Gus Grissom:
Yeah, the hatch. We need a hatch with explosive bolts that we can open ourselves.
German Scientist #1:
I think there is something you do not understand. This is the final form of the capsule. No hatch.
Deke Slayton:
What if the automatic controls went out?
German Scientist #1:
Backups, checks, etcetera. This would not happen.
Deke Slayton:
I said, what would happen if it did?
Scott Carpenter:
The pilot would have to fly it back.
German Scientist #2:
This is the way it is.
John Glenn:
You know, I wonder how the press is going to feel about this.
German Scientist #2:
The press? What does the press have to say about this?
German Scientist #1:
Yeah, what do they have to say about it?
Gordon Cooper:
You boys know what makes this bird go up? Funding makes this bird go up.
Gus Grissom:
That's right. No bucks, no Buck Rogers.
Gordon Cooper:
And, uh, the press over there, they want to see Buck Rogers.
Deke Slayton:
And that's us. Buck Rogers.
John Glenn:
You see, those fellas over there, they've been making us out as the seven finest, and bravest pilots in all America. And if a story were to come out in the press that we were not being allowed to fly as pilots...
Alan Shepard:
We want a window.
German Scientist #2:
Uh, there could maybe be in future capsules, be a window, right here.
Gus Grissom:
No, that's where the hatch with explosive bolts goes.
German Scientist #1:
The hatch with the explosive...? Yeah. There could be a hatch with explosive bolts on the capsule.
Alan Shepard:
That is a spacecraft, sir. We do not refer to it as a "capsule". Spacecraft.
German Scientist #1:
Yeah. The hatch with explosive bolts on the... spacecraft. There. And there will be pitch and yaw thrusters which will enable the astronaut occupant—
Deke Slayton:
The pilot. "Astronaut occupant"?
German Scientist #1:
Yeah, the astronaut... pilot to have some...
German Scientist #1:
To have...
German Scientist #1:
... control of the re-entry procedures.
John Glenn:
Thank you. we appreciate it. You wouldn't mind if we had the press over here take a few photos of us by our spacecraft now, would you?
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.