Alan Shepard

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

Whether you are an astronomer or a life scientist, geophysicist, or a pilot, you've got to be there because you believe you are good in your field, and you can contribute, not because you are going to get a lot of fame or whatever when you get back. ”

I woke up an hour before I was supposed to, and started going over the mental checklist: where do I go from here, what do I do? I don't remember eating anything at all, just going through the physical, getting into the suit. We practiced that so much, it was all rote. ”

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

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. ”

The rocket had worked perfectly, and all I had to do was survive the reentry forces. You do it all, in a flight like that, in a rather short period of time, just 16 minutes as a matter of fact. ”

I didn't mind studying. Obviously math and the physical science subjects interested me more than some of the more artistic subjects, but I think I was a pretty good student. ”