- [first lines]
- Ted Shaw: [on radio as Maddux dreams fitfully] T-minus 120 to burn. M.S.B. is go. Hydrogen, go. Deuterium sequences starting. Stabilizers set to 1-4-0. Positioning thrusters are at 7-niner-7. Fuel generators are engaged.
- Nadia Schilling: [kisses Maddux on cheek then smacks his rear]
- Zoe Barnes: Must be wearing your halo...
- Zoe Barnes: [innocently] I'm wearing mine.
- Maddux Donner: [narrating] You would think that there's a sadness when you pull away from Earth. An ache for the mountains and what's left of the beaches. For the sweet smell of fresh air. I guess there's a little bit of that. But when you're an astronaut, you start asking yourself questions like, "How the hell did I get here?" "Was it hard work? Fate? Was it the hand of God?" You ask yourself, "Why am I one of the lucky suckers leavin'. Not one of the poor bastards being left behind?"
- Maddux Donner: [coming out of stall] Ya know, they've been making these thinks for 200 years. You'd think they'd come up with something better than these buttons.
- Zoe Barnes: Think you can get 'em with zippers. And this is the ladies' room.
- Maddux Donner: Could've fooled me with that language. Kiss your mother with that mouth? That's friggin' shocking.
- Zoe Barnes: [testing spacesuit] Nominal. Full range of motion, though I feel like the Michelin Man.
- Maddux Donner: Yeah, well there's always been an uncanny resemblance.
- Maddux Donner: [telling about another trainee] 500 feet straight up. 500 feet down. Bam. Chute didn't have time to open.
- Zoe Barnes: That's terrible.
- Maddux Donner: Yeah. But it's more stupid than you.
- Zoe Barnes: He died.
- Maddux Donner: Yeah, but it was funny.
- Zoe Barnes: Donner!
- Eve Weller-Shaw: Zoe?
- Mike Goss: Stellar. Pass.
- Eve Weller-Shaw: Barnes.
- Mike Goss: Pass.
- Eve Weller-Shaw: Wassenfelder.
- Mike Goss: Send that boy back to mom.
- [last lines]
- Maddux Donner: Life isn't always fair. Failure can be rewarded. Merit can be looked at like a disease. Sometimes I think the only natural selection happens in a petri dish. But, if it's in a petri dish, that's not really natural, is it?
- Maddux Donner: So the question is, who or what is it who's pickin' the teams? And why can results seem so unfair and so painful? I have no answers. All I know is, if they pick you first, you better come through. And you never, ever, ever pull the damn eject lever...