Rusty Schweickart quotes

Rusty Schweickart is an American astronaut, engineer, and former NASA astronaut best known for his role on the Apollo 9 mission. As the Lunar Module Pilot, he played a key part in testing the spacecraft systems needed for moon landings. He has also been an advocate for space exploration and planetary defense. Here are 8 of his quotes:

We're not passengers on Spaceship Earth. We're the crew.

Rusty Schweickart

I don't want people to spend their nights worrying about getting hit by asteroids. But I do want them to encourage their political leaders to invest in the insurance, which will allow us to prevent it from happening.

Rusty Schweickart

We have the capability - physically, technically - to protect the Earth from asteroid impacts. We are now able to very slightly and subtly reshape the solar system in order to enhance human survival.

Rusty Schweickart

Landing on the moon was a dream that millions of kids have had for hundreds of years.

Rusty Schweickart

An asteroid can literally destroy 80 or 90 percent of the species that are alive on Earth. These are big events. I mean, this is called extinction.

Rusty Schweickart

It would take an extremely large spacecraft to deflect a large asteroid that would be headed directly for the Earth.

Rusty Schweickart

By preventing dangerous asteroid strikes, we can save millions of people, or even our entire species. And, as human beings, we can take responsibility for preserving this amazing evolutionary experiment of which we and all life on Earth are a part.

Rusty Schweickart