See an Apollo astronaut talk about his career in space

Russell "Rusty" L. Schweickart, an astronaut who piloted the Apollo 9 lunar module and helped pave the way for man's first steps on the moon, gave a speech June 8 during a ceremony dedicating a Sabre jet display with his former tail number in his honor. He used the opportunity to talk about his career and man's relationship with the universe.

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Schweickart was an Air Force pilot, flying in the 101st Tactical Fighter Squadron in the 1960s before he was selected as an astronaut. And the F-86H Sabre display at Otis Air National Guard Base in Massachusetts will celebrate his service in the cockpit as well as that of thousands of other pilots.

But Schweickart's career didn't end in jet planes. He would go on to ride rockets in space and would spend more than 10 days, 241 hours, in the final frontier on Apollo 9, the first manned flight of the lunar module. During that first manned flight of the module, it was Schweickart who was at the controls.

Schweickart also tested a space suit in a 46-minute spacewalk, the same suit design that Apollo 11 astronauts would wear on the moon's surface.

(Bill Anders, Apollo 8)

During his speech at the jet dedication, available in the video embedded above, Schweickart takes the opportunity to talk about the importance of the space program and mankind's connection to the technology it creates. One of the moments he highlights is the capture of the "Earthrise" photo by Apollo 8.

Apollo 8 astronauts testing the Lunar Orbiter had captured extensive footage of the craters on the moon and then, during a rotation, captured a photo of the Earth rising over the moon's surface. It was lit by the sun, and the blue of the oceans were marbled by the white of the clouds and provided a stark contrast to the black of space and the grey of the moon.