I Just Wanted To Be The First

Miles And Miles And Miles.

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.

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.

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.

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.