Yeah, I wasn't chosen to be first. I was just chosen to command that flight. Circumstance put me in that particular role. That wasn't planned by anyone.

NASA has been one of the most successful public investments in motivating students to do well and achieve all they can achieve. It's sad that we are turning the programme in a direction where it will reduce the amount of motivation and stimulation it provides to young people.

A picture does a great job, but it's not nearly like being there.

It's a great thing for a man to walk on the moon. But it's a greater thing for God to walk on the earth.

In much of society, research means to investigate something you do not know or understand.

I can honestly say - and it's a big surprise to me - that I have never had a dream about being on the moon.

We have no proof, But if we extrapolate, based on the best information we have available to us, we have to come to the conclusion that ... other life probably exists out there and perhaps in many places.