When I first looked back at the Earth, standing on the Moon, I cried.
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.
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.
You may not have any extra talent, but maybe you are just paying more attention to what you are doing.
The first plane ride was in a homemade glider my buddy and I built. Unfortunately we didn’t get more than four feet off the ground, because it crashed.
If somebody’d said before the flight, ‘Are you going to get carried away looking at the Earth from the Moon?’ I would have say, ‘No, no way.’ But yet when I first looked back at the Earth, standing on the Moon, I cried.
I must admit, maybe I am a piece of history after all.
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.
I’d like to say I was smart enough to finish six grades in five years, but I think perhaps the teacher was just glad to get rid of me.
Miles and miles and miles.