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.

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.

You may not have any extra talent, but maybe you are just paying more attention to what you are doing.

I think about the personal accomplishment, but there's more of a sense of the grand achievement by all the people who could put this man on the moon.

The excitement really didn't start to build until the trailer - which was carrying me, with a space suit with ventilation and all that sort of stuff - pulled up to the launch pad.

Roger, liftoff, and the clock is started.

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