I was a little concerned with how the crew was going to view me because I didn't know whether this program had been kinda forced down their throats. But they were wonderful.

If I can get some student interested in science, if I can show members of the general public what's going on up there in the space program, then my job's been done.

I cannot join the space program and restart my life as an astronaut, but this opportunity to connect my abilities as an educator with my interests in history and space is a unique opportunity to fulfill my early fantasies.

I will have a one-hour program called the Mission Watch, where I will describe details of the mission and give additional information about the lessons from space.

I told them how excited I would be to go into space and how thrilled I was when Alan Shepard made his historic flight, and when John Kennedy announced on the news that the men had landed safely on the moon, and how jealous I was of those men.

My sympathies have always been for working-class people.