I don't go along with going to Moon first to build a launch pad to go to Mars. We should go to Mars from Earth orbit. We have already been to the Moon; we've already practiced.

Kennedy had made a mess in Cuba at the Bay of Pigs. He had to do something to look good. The Apollo program of going to the Moon was quite a goal.

I want to get to the moon. I want to go to Mars.

This morning I drove the back roads to our Mercury launch pad, Complex Fourteen. There was a plaque with all our names on it. Now anyone who is happy to see his name engraved in marble really has something to worry about.

If you're going to go to the moon, you don't shoot the rocket right at the moon. You have to go at it obliquely.

If you're going to go into space, you have to have an objective, a mission. Where do you want to go? Earth orbit? The moon? Mars? What's the technology to get there? You develop the technology for the mission.