1) Do you enjoy your job as an astronaut?
Yes, I enjoy it very much
2)What is the best part of being an astronaut?
The best part of being an astronaut is getting to work with some very
smart and dedicated people all around the various NASA centers.
3) How long did you have to train to become an astronaut?
Initial training (to reach a knowlege/skill level sufficient to be ready
for flight crew assignment) takes about 1 1/2 years. You usually train for
about 9 months to a year prior to a specific flight. So the total training
time from arriving here to actually flying a shuttle mission is about a
minimum of 2 - 2 1/2 years.
4) Does the training take you to the limits, kinda help you along, or is
it a piece of cake?
Training is very challenging, but not impossible. We pick people with a
very strong technical background to handle the sometimes intense training
workload. You have to learn the shuttle as well as many other disciplines
such as Aeronautical Engineering, Orbital Mechanics, Life Sciences,
Geography, Oceanography, Geology, Physics, etc. If you study hard and stay
organized, you can keep up and actually enjoy the training along the way.
5) Did you have any other jobs before becoming an astronaut? What were
they?
I'm currently an active duty Air Force officer. Prior to becoming an
Astronaut, I was a fighter pilot and then an experimental test pilot. I
also earned a bachelor's and master's degree in engineering along the way.
6) What is the hardest part of becoming an astronaut?
Getting an interview and then getting selected to be an astronaut is the
greatest challenge. Once you are an astronaut the hardest part is the
workload -- I'm out of town more than I'd like to be, and often have to work
long hours. But the workload is manageable, and I still lead a fairly
normal life, just like any other Dad.
7) About how many times have you practiced landing the shuttle? Do you
ever think about having trouble while flying the shuttle?
I've practiced landing the shuttle about 800 times. Almost all of our
shuttle training involved malfunctions and emergencies, so we're always
thinking about what might go wrong and how we're going to deal with it.
8) What missions have you been on? What were their objectives? What
was your favorite mission???
I've been on 2 missions so far. My first, STS-87, was a 16 day microgravity
sciences mission. My second mission was STS-95, a 9 day microgravity and
life sciences mission. The objectives of each were varied. Each mission
had several payloads and experiments (for example, STS-95 had over 83
different experiments!) If you look up the NASA Shuttle Web homepage on the
internet, you can find out what these specific payloads were. I enjoyed
both missions very much, so I don't really have a favorite.
9) What does it feel like to be in outer space?
I'll try to describe what you feel physically, but overall being in space is
totally different than being here on earth and it's difficult for me to put
into words. The best way I can describe being weightless is to compare it
to a roller coaster. When you top a hill on a roller coaster, you've
probably gotten "butterflies" in your stomach. The reason you get that
funny feeling in your stomach is that the roller coaster is momentarily
"falling" down the hill. In space you have "butterflies" constantly,
because you are continually "falling" toward the earth. However, you never
hit the earth because you're travelling too fast (about 5 miles per second).
10) What good question did I forget to ask you?
The most commonly asked question is "how does the bathroom work?" And I'll
leave the answer as an exercise to the student!!
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