The rocket had worked perfectly, and all I had to do was survive the reentry forces. You do it all, in a flight like that, in a rather short period of time, just 16 minutes as a matter of fact.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
When you launch in a rocket, you're not really flying that rocket. You're just sort of hanging on.
I was never going to be a rocket scientist. But I found the field that I was blessed to be able to do, and I just put my whole effort into that.
Rocket science is tough, and rockets have a way of failing.
I certainly remember building model rockets. It was fun to watch the rocket blast into the air, suspenseful to wonder if the parachute would open to bring the rocket safely back.
I've had a chance to fly a lot of different airplanes, but it was nothing like the shuttle ride.
Later, I realized that the mission had to end in a let-down because the real barrier wasn't in the sky but in our knowledge and experience of supersonic flight.
Having the opportunity to fly the first flight of something like a space shuttle was the ultimate test flight.
I am just a regular dude who happened to make it. That's all I am, man. Maybe I was preparing myself in some lifetime to become this person, but I never thought I'd have every rocket shooting off at one time.
There was a lot of light and a lot of rumbling and vibration, especially the first minute or minute-and-a-half. And then after about two minutes, when the solid rocket boosters separated, the ride got a lot smoother.
I could have gone on flying through space forever.