"It's, I mean, for me, it's the same as training with my crewmembers. We share the same first part of the flight. We all go together. It's the most critical part of the flight, the ascent"
About this Quote
The verbal stumbles are the point: "It's, I mean" reads like a mind re-entering a high-stakes memory, not a person delivering a polished slogan. Philippe Perrin isn’t romanticizing spaceflight; he’s insisting on something more bracingly practical. For him, the marquee divide between astronaut and passenger collapses at the exact moment most people want to mythologize: liftoff.
The intent is to normalize solidarity under pressure. By framing it as "the same as training", Perrin pulls ascent down from cinematic spectacle into the realm of routine discipline, where trust is rehearsed, roles are earned, and panic is managed before it arrives. That comparison also carries a subtle ethical claim: during ascent, status doesn’t matter. The vehicle, the physics, the risk level the hierarchy. You’re only as safe as the system and the team you’ve practiced becoming.
The subtext sits in "we share" and "we all go together". It’s a deliberate antidote to the lone-hero narrative that still clings to astronaut culture. Perrin foregrounds the collective, because ascent is where individual bravado becomes irrelevant. Calling it "the most critical part" isn’t just technical accuracy; it’s a reminder that the romance of orbit is built on a narrow corridor of controlled violence on the way up.
Contextually, the line lands as a quiet rebuttal to any idea that space is an elite playground. Whatever comes after, ascent is the great equalizer: one cabin, one trajectory, one set of stakes.
The intent is to normalize solidarity under pressure. By framing it as "the same as training", Perrin pulls ascent down from cinematic spectacle into the realm of routine discipline, where trust is rehearsed, roles are earned, and panic is managed before it arrives. That comparison also carries a subtle ethical claim: during ascent, status doesn’t matter. The vehicle, the physics, the risk level the hierarchy. You’re only as safe as the system and the team you’ve practiced becoming.
The subtext sits in "we share" and "we all go together". It’s a deliberate antidote to the lone-hero narrative that still clings to astronaut culture. Perrin foregrounds the collective, because ascent is where individual bravado becomes irrelevant. Calling it "the most critical part" isn’t just technical accuracy; it’s a reminder that the romance of orbit is built on a narrow corridor of controlled violence on the way up.
Contextually, the line lands as a quiet rebuttal to any idea that space is an elite playground. Whatever comes after, ascent is the great equalizer: one cabin, one trajectory, one set of stakes.
Quote Details
| Topic | Teamwork |
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