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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

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Alan Shepard
Age: 74 †
Born: 1923
Born: November 18
Died: 1998
Died: July 22
Aircraft Pilot
Astronaut
Entrepreneur
Naval Officer
United States Naval Aviator
Derry
New Hampshire
Alan Bartlett Shepard Jr.
Realize
Sobering
Realizing
Contract
Feeling
Factor
Space
Contracts
Feelings
Lowest
Government
Factors
Safety
Determined
Bidder

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You have to be there not for the fame and glory and recognition and being a page in a history book, but you have to be there because you believe your talent and ability can be applied effectively to operation of the spacecraft.
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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.
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I know you're all saying I can go to the moon but I can't find Pasadena.
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The fact that every part of this ship was built by the low bidder.
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And I think that still is true of this business - which is basically research and development - that you probably spend more time in planning and training and designing for things to go wrong, and how you cope with them, than you do for things to go right.
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I guess those of us who have been with NASA kind of understand the tremendous excitement and thrills and celebrations and national pride that went with the Apollo program is just something you're not going to create again, probably until we go to Mars.
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We also knew it would be difficult, because of the financial condition of the family, for me to go to college.
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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.
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I can hit it farther on the moon. But actually, my swing is better here on Earth.
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Al is on the surface. And it's been a long way, but we're here.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Roger, liftoff, and the clock is started.
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I just wanted to be the first one to fly for America, not because I'd end up in the pages of history books.
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We need a continuing presence in space.
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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.
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You may not have any extra talent, but maybe you are just paying more attention to what you are doing.
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