Alan Shepard Quotes

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

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.

When I first looked back at the Earth, standing on the Moon I cried

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

Why don't you light that candle ?

You may not have any extra talent, but maybe you are just paying more attention to what you are doing.

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.

I just wanted to be the first one to fly for America, not because I'd end up in the pages of history books.

Got more dirt than ball. Here we go again.

We're going to see passengers in space stations in 15 years, who will be able to buy a ticket and spend a weekend in space.

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.

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.

Why don't you fix your little problem and light this candle?

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.

Roger, liftoff, and the clock is started.

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.

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.

The excitement really didn't start to build until the trailer - which was carrying me, with a space suit with ventilation and all that sort of stuff - pulled up to the launch pad.

Of course I was delighted the flight was over, but I still had to worry about cleaning up inside the cabin, I had to worry about the hatch, how to get in the sling, and so on.

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.

Miles and miles and miles.

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

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.

I know you're all saying I can go to the moon but I can't find Pasadena.

You know, being a test pilot isn't always the healthiest business in the world.

I think about the personal accomplishment, but there's more of a sense of the grand achievement by all the people who could put this man on the moon.

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.

The suit was so clumsy, being pressurized, it was impossible to get two hands comfortably on the handle and it's impossible to make any kind of a turn. It was kind of a one-handed chili-dip.

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.

Unfortunately, the suit is so stiff, I can't do this with two hands, but I'm going to try a little sand-trap shot here.

I think first of all you have to be there for the right reason.

We need a continuing presence in space.

The same way people are now paying a couple thousand dollars to fly to other parts of the world, people will be paying $50,000 to spend a weekend on a space station.

Because of the suit I was wearing, I couldn't make a good pivot on the swing. And I had to hit the ball with one hand.

I can hit it farther on the moon. But actually, my swing is better here on Earth.

Al is on the surface. And it's been a long way, but we're here.

They say any landing you can walk away from is a good one.

It is 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.