You have to be there not for the fame and glory and recognition and being a page in a history book, but you have to be there because you believe your talent and ability can be applied effectively to operation of the spacecraft.

It's a very sobering feeling to be up in space and realize that one's safety factor was determined by the lowest bidder on a government contract.

If somebody'd said before the flight, 'Are you going to get carried away looking at the Earth from the Moon?' I would have say, 'No, no way.' But yet when I first looked back at the Earth, standing on the Moon, I cried.

We're going to see passengers in space stations in 15 years, who will be able to buy a ticket and spend a weekend in space.

I think the sense of family and family achievement, plus the discipline which I received there from that one-room school were really very helpful in what I did later on.

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 know you're all saying I can go to the moon but I can't find Pasadena.