I worked for some very good people who have helped me along the way and actually enabled me to have the opportunity to be selected to join the Astronaut Corps.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Two months after I got out of test pilot school, I saw an advert that said NASA was recruiting more astronauts. The best job you could have as a test pilot was being an astronaut, so I volunteered.
It took me a long time to get selected as an astronaut. In fact, I applied for 20 years before I was selected.
It so happened that my goals kind of matched my career progression toward becoming an astronaut.
I've been approached to do some things with astronauts and the preparation that astronauts go through.
Any astronaut can tell you you've got to do everything you can to learn about your life support system and then do everything you can to take care of it.
I cannot join the space program and restart my life as an astronaut, but this opportunity to connect my abilities as an educator with my interests in history and space is a unique opportunity to fulfill my early fantasies.
I feel very privileged to be part of this mission, and when my nomination was announced, I was really very, very happy to be selected for this mission.
I was a naval officer and aviator. I tested airplanes and got selected to be an astronaut later on.
I stayed in the astronaut program until 1993. People ask me why I left. I thought I had a lot of things to contribute that would be difficult to do if I stayed. I thought I could have a stronger voice as an advocate for space exploration. So I ended up starting my own technology consulting company.
I had done everything I could do as an astronaut, and we have a long line of inexperienced astronauts waiting for their first missions, and so my role really should be to step aside and help them prepare for their missions, rather than to try to get another mission.