I was the most emotional of the flight directors. Space really got me all honked up.
Interpretation
The quote expresses the strong emotions and personal connection that come with overseeing space missions.
Gene Kranz, a flight director during NASA's space missions, reflects on his deep emotional investment in the challenges and triumphs of space exploration. His admission of being 'honked up' illustrates the profound impact that the responsibilities and successes of space missions had on him, highlighting the human element behind the technical achievements in aerospace.
In practice
In a speech about teamwork during a project launch.
There's an awful lot of future out there, and what you got to do, is you go to out and grab it, wrestle it to the ground, accept the challenges, and then decide. You've got the skills. You've got the knowledge. You've got the love, and you're capable of moving forward and making a great life yourself.
I did everything by the numbers. I had checklists upon checklists. If I wasn't ahead of everybody on my team, I didn't feel I was doing my job.
No way can you ever, ever, ever evidence confusion, concern, lack of understanding. You have to be in charge. You are the guy. You have to be cooler than cool, smarter than smart.
You can not operate in this room unless you believe that you are Superman, and whatever happens, you're capable of solving the problem.
I just felt that space was the next thing coming in aviation. It was higher, faster. It had the risk.
We've never lost an American in space, we're sure as hell not gonna lose one on my watch! Failure is not an option.
I dug things up. I was curious. I liked to draw what I found.
Many investigators feel uneasy stating in public that the origin of life is a mystery, even though behind closed doors they admit they are baffled.
For me, it was my first cosmic connection, on par with a first kiss. No other planet looks as unworldly or surreal as Saturn. When you see it floating in the eyepiece of your telescope, you feel as if you've uncovered mystery in the cosmos.
Dissections daily convince us of our ignorance of the seats of diseases, and cause us to blush at our prescriptions. How often are we disappointed in our expectation from the most certain and powerful of our remedies, by the negligence or obstinacy of our patients! What mischief have we done under the belief of false facts and false theories! We have assisted in multiplying diseases. We have done more β we have increased their mortality.
My own experience of over 60 years in biomedical research amply demonstrated that without the use of animals and of human beings, it would have been impossible to acquire the important knowledge needed to prevent much suffering and premature death not only among humans but also among [other] animals.
We have to understand the ubiquity of energy in everything we do. Energy is core to our economy and it brings with it environmental challenges, and it's core to our security challenges.
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