Alan Shepard Quotes

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

  Alan Shepard

  Moon   Swings   Earth  

  "Lunar-Golfer Shepard Takes Swings In Tourney". The Orlando Sentinel, p. A2, August 13, 1992.

  210

• 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.

  Alan Shepard

  Space  

  1695

• 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.

  Alan Shepard

  3084

• 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.

  Alan Shepard

  4364

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

  Alan Shepard

  Moon   Pasadena   Knows  

  "Astronaut Late to Signing". Sun-Sentinel, p. 2A, June 19, 1995.

  1045

• 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.

  Alan Shepard

  1990

• 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.

  Alan Shepard

  1139

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

  Alan Shepard

  Moon   Long   Als  

  1269

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

  Alan Shepard

  3892

• 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.

  Alan Shepard

  Littles  

  3219

• 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.

  Alan Shepard

  "The Flight of Memory - Mercury Reunion Honors Glenn's Voyage" by Elizabeth Kastor, The Washington Post, p. G1, February 21, 1987.

  4710

• Roger, liftoff, and the clock is started.

  Alan Shepard

  Jay Barbree, Alan Shepard, Deke Slayton (2011). “Moon Shot: The Inside Story of America's Apollo Moon Landings”, p.130, Open Road Media

  2964

• 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.

  Alan Shepard

  Thinking  

  1482

• 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.

  Alan Shepard

  3564

• 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.

  Alan Shepard

  "It's Been 25 Years Since We Took That Giant Leap For Mankind - Moon Odyssey" by James Endrst, The Hartford Courant, p. B1, July 08, 1994.

  2674

• Got more dirt than ball. Here we go again.

  Alan Shepard

  4743

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

  Alan Shepard

  4931

• 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.

  Alan Shepard

  Moon   Space   Earth  

  3702

• 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.

  Alan Shepard

  4252

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

  Alan Shepard

  Thinking  

  Source: www.achievement.org

  2405

• 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.

  Alan Shepard

  Thinking  

  3406

• 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.

  Alan Shepard

  Thinking  

  2461

• 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.

  Alan Shepard

  Inspiration   Moon   Leaving  

  "The thrill of space? Let's ask Alan Shepard" by Richard Louv, The San Diego Union-Tribune, p. A-2, August 02, 1995.

  215

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

  Alan Shepard

  3940

• 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.

  Alan Shepard

  Moon   Men   Thinking  

  "Shepard Still Shoots for Moon". The Denver Post, p. 1D, September 29, 1992+.

  5161

• Why don't you light that candle ?

  Alan Shepard

  Light  

  4126

• The pilot looked at his cues of attitude and speed and orientation and so on and responded as he would from the same cues in an airplane, but there was no way it flew the same. The simulators had showed us that.

  Alan Shepard

  2221

• On the periscope . . . . What a beautiful view. Cloud cover over Florida - three to four tenths near the eastern coast. Obscured up to Hatteras . . . I can see [lake] Okeechobee. Identify Andros Island. Identify the reefs.

  Alan Shepard

  Beautiful   Moon   Lakes  

  1125

• Then I thought, with the same clubhead speed, the ball's going to go at least six times as far. There's absolutely no drag, so if you do happen to spin it, it won't slice or hook 'cause there's no atmosphere to make it turn.

  Alan Shepard

  2660

• 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.

  Alan Shepard

  Space  

  "What Does Moon Flight Mean Now" by Josh Getlin, The Seattle Times, p. A10, July 19, 1994.

  3628

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