David Mackay Quotes

#1. We go up just into space - space is most commonly accepted to be 100 kilometres above the earth's surface, and we go up just beyond that to about 350,000 ft.

David Mackay

#2. I've always hankered after going into space and walking on the moon and Mars. I did want to be an astronaut, and had there been a manned space flight programme in the U.K., I would have been knocking on the door.

David Mackay

#3. I thought any chance I had of space travel would be military or government-controlled.

David Mackay

#4. In any aircraft you fly, you always think about what can go wrong, and you plan for it in advance. You always have back-up plans.

David Mackay

#5. For Virgin Galactic's customers, it is transportation to the most amazing experience of their lives. I very much look forward to sending some Scots into space.

David Mackay

#6. By my mid-30s, I just thought, 'This is not going to happen. I am never going to become an astronaut in the U.K.'

David Mackay

#7. I was a frustrated astronaut all my life. I grew up at a time when space seemed to have no boundaries, and lots of us presumed humans would be living on the moon and landing on Mars.

David Mackay

#8. I want to get to the moon. I want to go to Mars.

David Mackay

#9. I do have a bit of a fear of heights. But I don't get scared of heights when I am flying a plane.

David Mackay

#10. When I was 12, I saw the Apollo moon landings, and I thought that was really fantastic and exciting and thought, 'That's what I want to do.'

David Mackay

#11. I was brought up in the north of Scotland, and where I lived was so lowly populated, it was used as a low-flying area by the Air Force, so lots of exciting aircraft used to fly over my village.

David Mackay

#12. I am not going to pretend that flying a spaceship will be as safe as getting in a 747 with four engines for a flight across the Atlantic.

David Mackay

#13. I would say if you do have ambitions, don't just wait around. Go out and make yourself as well-qualified as possible so you can take that rare opportunity when it comes along.

David Mackay

#14. Not long after I got my test pilot qualification, I realised there was no manned space flight programme in the U.K., and there was unlikely to be one.

David Mackay

#15. I watched the moon landing as a boy, and I thought that was the most exciting thing ever, going into space, orbiting Earth and exploring other planets. That looked fantastic.

David Mackay

#16. From a very early age, I wanted to fly aeroplanes.

David Mackay

#17. I cannot wait to get up there and experience space travel for the first time. It will be a dream come true.

David Mackay

#18. I have watched SS2 evolve over the years into an incredible vehicle that is going to open up space to more people than ever before.

David Mackay

#19. I've been lucky enough to have flown some very interesting aircraft in the past, but SpaceShipTwo is far and away the most exciting of them all.

David Mackay