You have to be there not for the fame and glory and recognition and being a page in a history book, but you have to be there because you believe your talent and ability can be applied effectively to operation of the spacecraft.

He was also project test pilot on the F5D Skylancer and his last five months at Patuxent were spent as an instructor in the Test Pilot School. Alan Bartlett Shepard Jr.

He was promoted from Captain to Rear Admiral on August 25 1971. During the mission he hit two golf balls on the lunar surface. This Mercury flight was designed to enter space but not to achieve orbit.