I just want to say, good night, sweet prince, may flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.
In the late 1960s, Ontario Airport was a throwback to a bygone era. Located 35 miles east of downtown Los Angeles, the airport served only two carriers, Western and Bonanza. Passengers could catch regional flights to San Francisco, Sacramento, Las Vegas, Palm Springs, Phoenix and Los Angeles, and that was about it.
The lunar flights give you a correct perception of our existence. You look back at Earth from the moon, and you can put your thumb up to the window and hide the Earth behind your thumb. Everything you've ever known is behind your thumb, and that blue-and-white ball is orbiting a rather normal star, tucked away on the outer edge of a galaxy.
Ironically, it is only when disaster strikes that the shuttle makes the headlines. Its routine flights attracted less media interest than unmanned probes to the planets or the images from the Hubble Telescope. The fate of Columbia (like that of Challenger in 1986) reminded us that space is still a hazardous environment.
On long haul flights I always drink loads and loads of water and eat light and healthy food.
We're doing a lot of inspection on the leading edge of our wing on 114 and 121, the first two flights.
If you can find a frock you look nice in and can run up three flights of stairs, you're not fat.
The first two missions have some test objectives, some new capabilities that we're going to try to develop on orbit to possibly be used on later flights.
I turned up my nose at yoga for years. I was a rugby player growing up. But now I know. When I'm on those long international flights, like 22 hours from L.A. to Sydney, I'll get up sometimes and do yoga in the aisle just to stretch out a little bit.
I was motivated to improve the U.S. strategy of going back to the moon in 1985. That's a long time ago. Going back to the moon would be a great achievement for tourism adventure flights.