The Best Deke Slayton Quotes

Deke: Presidents come and go, Ed, but we're the ones carrying the fire. It took a lot of guts, what you did up there in DC. I need guys like you around for what's coming down the pike.
Edward: I'm not coming back to sit behind a desk.
Deke: No, you're not.
Edward: What exactly does that mean?
Deke: It means you're back on Apollo 15.
Edward: Wait, are you...?
Deke: Ed, maybe just once, shut the fuck up. You're going back to the moon.

Deke: Anybody tell the president that we don't have any female astronauts?
Thomas: Well, I think he's aware. Every newspaper, magazine, talk show and newscast is pointing it out on a daily basis.

Shorty: We do not have one John Glenn in that group, and it's not even close.
Gene: I don't know. A couple of them look like they're starting to lose their hair.
Shorty: Who in this group is the all-American girl? The one people are gonna love and take into their hearts and feel good about doing it?
Deke: John Glenn wasn't John Glenn until he became John Glenn.
Shorty: John Glenn was always John Glenn. And that's why he was chosen for Mercury.

Deke: No doubt in your mind, when this Saturn lifts off, it hauls ass.

Deke: I always knew you had a bit of John Glenn in you. I mean, yeah, you were quiet, a little hard on yourself, but when you walk into a room, people pay attention. When you speak, people listen.

Shorty: The press called them the Mercury 13. Each was an experienced pilot with hundreds or thousands of hours of flight time. Each passed the entire battery of physical and psychological tests given the original Mercury 7 male astronauts. Program was killed before they could attend flight training in Pensacola.
Deke: I remember. John Glenn really hated that whole thing.
Thomas: Well, Glenn's not flying anymore. And he's a Democrat, so his opinion doesn't matter.

Molly: The thousand dollar socket wrench works as advertised.
Deke: You sound surprised.
Molly: Said the man with the busted $200 million spaceship.

Deke: I was at the Cape with the rest of the Mercury astronauts when Jim Webb came down and told us the Russians put the first man in space. Webb wanted us to put a good face on for the press. So we did, but not for a while. First, we had to be pissed off, and we were. Gus could hardly speak. And Al Glad Al Shepard's not here today. Al was really pissed. Even Glenn. Yes, believe it or not, gentlemen, John Glenn actually said the word "fuck."

Deke: You wanna cry about Apollo 15? Let me tell you something. There may not be an Apollo 12, much less 15.
Edward: What the hell are you talking about?
Deke: The country's in shock, Eddie. Like Pearl Harbor shock. American people thought we had this thing in the bag, then the Russians come along and snatch it away at the last minute. Congress is talking about hearings, the president is looking for someone to blame, and you just served up the whole goddamn agency for a necktie party.
Edward: They really might cancel everything after 11?
Deke: That's usually what happens when the race is over. Winner collects their prize, loser goes home.

Deke: You know, it's not the worst way to go.
Ellen: Which? Because right now we can pick from suffocation, starvation...
Deke: Cannibalism.
Ellen: Or we could just open the hatch.
Deke: I don't know. I kinda wanna see how far we'll get. Go farther in the universe than anyone's ever gone. That's something, at least.

Thomas: I did not authorize this.
Deke: I know. I did. I say who's an astronaut. Who goes up and when.
Thomas: Well, congratulations. You just made Nixon's shitlist.

Richard: I like what I'm seeing on the news, Deke. Quite a show. Congratulations.
Deke: Thank you, sir. I appreciate...
Richard: If the girl screws up, it's your ass.

Ellen: We'll have to ditch the cargo. Gonna need just about all the fuel we've got left to get our velocity down to 35,650 feet per second. The margin's gonna be... well there won't be a margin.
Deke: Well, it's either that or we're on our way to Jupiter and Ed stays stranded.

Deke: You have any idea how hard I've been working to get these women ready? They have been busting their butts doing every goddamn thing I ask.
Thomas: Well, he's seen the light. What can I say? With the Soviets on our heels, he doesn't want any distractions. And the polling didn't help. Turns out Americans don't really wanna watch women dying in fiery plane crashes.

Thomas: We need a win. Sputnik. Gagarin. Leonov. Belikova. The president's not interested in another second-place finish. It's bad enough that our girl's accident is plastered all over the news. We have an election coming up, and the way it looks, it's probably gonna be against Ted Kennedy.
Deke: Should be a nice, clean fight.
Thomas: The president wants to give the American people something to cheer about.
Frank: A Kennedy landslide?
Thomas: Laugh all you want, but Nixon's the only reason this program still exists. Apollo 15 will locate a usable site. And the president will announce that mankind's first permanently manned base on the moon will be flying the star-spangled banner. Congratulations, gentlemen, you're going to make history.