The Excitement Really Didn't Start To Build

Roger, Liftoff, And The Clock Is Started.

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.

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 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.

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.