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.

I realized up there that our planet is not infinite. It's fragile. That may not be obvious to a lot of folks, and it's tough that people are fighting each other here on Earth instead of trying to get together and live on this planet. We look pretty vulnerable in the darkness of space.

You know, being a test pilot isn't always the healthiest business in the world.

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.

We also knew it would be difficult, because of the financial condition of the family, for me to go to college.

I guess those of us who have been with NASA kind of understand the tremendous excitement and thrills and celebrations and national pride that went with the Apollo program is just something you're not going to create again, probably until we go to Mars.

Roger, liftoff, and the clock is started.