Because of the suit I was wearing, I couldn't make a good pivot on the swing. And I had to hit the ball with one hand.

And I think that still is true of this business - which is basically research and development - that you probably spend more time in planning and training and designing for things to go wrong, and how you cope with them, than you do for things to go right.

Of course, in our grade school, in those days, there were no organized sports at all. We just went out and ran around the school yard for recess.

I'd like to say I was smart enough to finish six grades in five years, but I think perhaps the teacher was just glad to get rid of me.

Miles and miles and miles.

I just wanted to be the first one to fly for America, not because I'd end up in the pages of history books.

Then there was the challenge to keep doing better and better, to fly the best test flight that anybody had ever flown. That led to my being recognized as one of the more experienced test pilots, and that led to the astronaut business.