“I was only 8 years old on July 20, 1969, when Neil Armstrong, 38-year-...” — Douglas Brinkley Quote

“I was only 8 years old on July 20, 1969, when Neil Armstrong, 38-year-old commander of 'Apollo 11,' descended the cramped lunar module Eagle's ladder with hefty backpack and bulky spacesuit to become the first human on the moon.”

“Now I'm the father of three children; I'm not able to go live on a bus and do semesters around the country like I did when I was young.”

“Politicians wanted to mine the Grand Canyon for zinc and copper, and Theodore Roosevelt said, 'No.'”

“The day Apollo 11 landed, I knew men would walk on Mars in my lifetime. I'm no longer nearly so sure. The last budget put forward in Canada contained not a penny for Mars.”

“After Apollo 17, America stopped looking towards the next horizon. The United States had become a space-faring nation, but threw it away. We have sacrificed space exploration for space exploitation, which is interesting but scarcely visionary.”

“The Apollo curse is something I don't even think about.”