Obviously I was challenged by becoming a Naval aviator, by landing aboard aircraft carriers and so on.

They say any landing you can walk away from is a good one.

We were expecting a naval armada, but that hasn't happened.

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.

It was not skidding off the runway. Actually the landing was smooth, but the pilot had to turn the aircraft at the end of the airstrip to the taxi way because he felt that something went wrong with the aircraft's nose wheel during the landing.

Then there was the challenge to keep doing better and better, to fly the best test flight that anybody had ever flown. That led to my being recognized as one of the more experienced test pilots, and that led to the astronaut business.