"We had simulated essentially everything we could think of or anything anybody could think of on that flight, all previous flights, and in centrifuges, in zero G airplanes, and procedure trainers and that kind of stuff. And yet the very first seconds of the flight were a total surprise to everybody because the Saturn V which is a big tall rocket, kind of skinny, more like a whip antenna on your automobile, like a bug on the end of a whip…"

“I thought the American public was supporting Apollo not because they wanted science or even because they wanted exploration, they wanted to show those “dirty commies” that America .”

“From there, the blue-and-white glory of Earth, the only color amidst the blackness of space, became a beacon.”

“But, the most impressive aspect of the flight was we were in lunar orbit. We’d been going backwards and upside down, didn’t really see the Earth or the Sun, and when we rolled around and came around and saw the first Earth rise. hat certainly was, by far, the most impressive thing. To see this very delicate, colorful orb which to me looked like a Christmas tree ornament coming up over this very stark, ugly lunar landscape really contrasted...”

“We set out to explore the moon and instead discovered the Earth.”

“So here was this orb looking like a Christmas tree ornament, very fragile, not expanse granite … a physical insignificance and yet it was our home…”

“I’m not that famous, and I’m certainly not glib, so maybe I’d really ought to work for a living.’... he shareholders at General Dynamics couldn’t have cared less whether I had been at the Moon or not. So it helped me some but not all that much.”