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It so happened that my goals kind of matched my career progression toward becoming an astronaut.

Then there was the challenge to keep doing better and better, to fly the best test flight that anybody had ever flown. That led to my being recognized as one of the more experienced test pilots, and that led to the astronaut business.

I was a naval officer and aviator. I tested airplanes and got selected to be an astronaut later on.

I loved being a test pilot, and so being an astronaut was - was not my end point in, you know, either I achieved success by being an astronaut, or if I don't get picked, I'm not successful. I loved my career as a pilot, and it was a bonus to be selected as an astronaut.

I always wanted to be an astronaut.

Obviously I was challenged by becoming a Naval aviator, by landing aboard aircraft carriers and so on.

I didn't really decide that I wanted to be an astronaut for sure until the end of college.

I never made a career decision based solely on my desire to be an astronaut. I attended the Naval Academy because I wanted to be a Navy pilot. I majored in math because math had always come pretty easily to me and I liked it.

I never declared I wanted to be an astronaut, as I considered that was presumptuous.

I progressed through my schooling, undergraduate and graduate degrees, excited about math and science and engineering, but really didn't think about being an astronaut at that point. It was kind of unreachable.