There's no question that all the generations got excited about the first flights, with Kennedy's inspiration to go to the moon, leaving the planet for the first time, and fortunately coming back.

Obviously I was challenged by becoming a Naval aviator, by landing aboard aircraft carriers and so on.

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.

The fact that every part of this ship was built by the low bidder.

We had some adverse conditions in the '60s, in the '70s and the '80s. The agency has risen above that in the past and will rise above that again.

But when I was selected, after my very first tour of squadron duty, to become one of the youngest candidates for the test pilot school, I began to realize, maybe you are a little bit better.