Roger, liftoff, and the clock is started.
Alan ShepardRead
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.
Interpretation
The quote reflects the thrill and anticipation of embarking on a significant journey or challenge.
In this quote, Alan Shepard describes the moment when the excitement of space travel really began to resonate with him. As he was being transported in a trailer to the launch pad, he was suited up for a monumental experience, highlighting how the weight of the moment becomes tangible in the lead-up to an extraordinary event. It encapsulates the feelings of anticipation and courage that are often felt before taking a leap into the unknown.
In practice
During a motivational speech to inspire students considering a career in science.
Roger, liftoff, and the clock is started.
Whether you are an astronomer or a life scientist, geophysicist, or a pilot, you've got to be there because you believe you are good in your field, and you can contribute, not because you are going to get a lot of fame or whatever when you get back.
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.
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.
When I first looked back at the Earth, standing on the Moon I cried
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 believe that one day the world will judge the witch hunt against homosexuals just as harshly as it judges the Spanish Inquisition and the Holocaust.
Our capacity for wholeheartednes s can never be greater than our willingness to be broken-hearted.
The cause doesn't have to be righteous and battle doesn't have to be winnable; but over and over again throughout history, men have chosen to die in battle with their friends rather than to flee on their own and survive.
I wanted my faith to look the same to everyone else and to be the same for me regardless of what was going on - whether I was on the Super Bowl podium holding the trophy or when I was being benched two years later and people saying that I would never play again.
In 1960, when I graduated from college, people told me a woman couldn't go to law school. And when I graduated from law school, people told me, 'Law firms won't hire you.'
To all the survivors out there, I want them to know that we are stronger and more resilient than we ever knew. We survived, that should be enough but it isn't. We must work hard to become whole again, to fill our soul with love and inspiration, to live the life that was intended for us before it was disrupted by war and horrors, and help rebuild a world that is better than the one we had just left.
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