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I was selected to be an astronaut on a military program called the Manned Orbiting Laboratory back in '67. That program got cancelled in '69 and NASA ended up taking half of us.

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

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

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.

I always wanted to be an astronaut.

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.

Well, for me it really wasn't a case of deciding to be an astronaut.

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

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.