“The powered flight took a total of about eight and a half minutes. It seemed to me it had gone by in a lash. We had gone from sitting still on the launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center to traveling at 17,500 miles an hour in that eight and a half minutes. It is still mind-boggling to me. I recall making some statement on the air-to-ground radio for the benefit of my fellow astronauts, who had also been in the program a long time, that it was well worth the wait.”
Quote by Robert Crippen
Author
Robert Crippen
Robert Crippen (born September 11, 1937) is an American astronaut who participated in the Space Shuttle program. He flew as pilot on STS-1 in 1981, becoming one of the first astronauts to ride a space shuttle into orbit. Crippen completed four space missions: STS-1, STS-7, STS-41-C, and STS-41-G, accumulating over 23 days in space. Before NASA, he served as a naval aviator. He later held management roles at NASA, including director of the Space Shuttle program, until his retirement in 1992. more
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