Memorable Quotes from Charles Frank
1 quoteDebate 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.