You've done it in the simulator so many times, you don't have a real sense of being excited when the flight is going on. You're excited before, but as soon as the liftoff occurs, you are busy doing what you have to do. (Alan Shepard)
We worked with the engineers in the design and construction and testing phases in those various areas, then we would get back together at the end of the week and brief each other as to what had gone on. (Alan Shepard)
Then there was the challenge to keep doing better and better, to fly the best test flight that anybody had ever flown. That led to my being recognized as one of the more experienced test pilots, and that led to the astronaut business. (Alan Shepard)
Obviously I was challenged by becoming a Naval aviator, by landing aboard aircraft carriers and so on. (Alan Shepard)
We also knew it would be difficult, because of the financial condition of the family, for me to go to college. (Alan Shepard)
It's been a long way, but we're here. (Alan Shepard)
It's a very sobering feeling to be up in space and realize that one's safety factor was determined by the lowest bidder on a government contract. (Alan Shepard)
Later, in the early teens, I used to ride my bike every Saturday morning to the nearest airport, ten miles away, push airplanes in and out of the hangars, and clean up the hangars. (Alan Shepard)
Of course, in our grade school, in those days, there were no organized sports at all. We just went out and ran around the school yard for recess. (Alan Shepard)
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. (Alan Shepard)
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. (Alan Shepard)
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. (Alan Shepard)
They say any landing you can walk away from is a good one. (Alan Shepard)
I think all of us certainly believed the statistics which said that probably 88% chance of mission success and maybe 96% chance of survival. And we were willing to take those odds. (Alan Shepard)
So everything turned out fine, and we were given the opportunity to go to Washington and be briefed on the project of man in space, and given the opportunity to choose whether we wanted to get involved or not. (Alan Shepard)