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.
When I meet gay kids and they know who we are, I remember that's amazing because literally every gay person in every gay story I knew growing up was doomed to die. There weren't any positive gay stories and it's incredible that has changed.
I followed the war wherever I could reach it.
In sorrow and suffering, go straight to God with confidence, and you will be strengthened, enlightened and instructed.
Every Fourth of July, our Declaration of Independence is produced, with a sublime indignation, to set forth the tyranny of the mother country and to challenge the admiration of the world. But what a pitiful detail of grievances does this document present in comparison with the wrongs which our slaves endure!
Are we at last brought to such an humiliating and debasing degradation, that we cannot be trusted with arms for our defense?
The crowd intimidates me, its breath suffocates me. I feel paralyzed by its curious look, and the unknown faces make me dumb.
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