I flew three flights, two as a pilot and one as commander. The last one was almost three years ago.

The first one was a research flight. The second was a rendezvous docking flight with the MIR space station. The last flight was another research mission, which I commanded.

Well, the first one and the last were for life science research. The second one was about how the random brain and nervous systems function in zero gravity. I learned some very interesting things. We did a lot of dissections with animals—a couple hundred dissections of the rats and mice we had on board. One of the things we found was that the inner ear completely re-wires itself when in space; the inner balance part, the balance organs, and the individual cells, which sense the acceleration. They make a new connection, a new synaptic connection. That was somewhat unexpected--the extent of it was totally unexpected. We’ve been doing research on the ground on similar kinds of things—for brain injuries, and when the brain sort of re-wires itself (its called neuroplasticity). The space research was important add on to that. The results from it were pretty surprising. That was just one tiny thing out of hundreds of experiment results. It gives you a flavor for what we look at.

The pilots are responsible for a lot of systems. We are responsible for the main engines, the reaction control system, the orbital maneuvering system engines (which are used in space), the hydraulic systems, the auxiliary power units (which provide the force to power the hydraulics), the electric system (which goes through every system that uses electricity—so it’s very important) and the fuel cells (which generate electricity). Once you get up into orbit, the pilot ends up having all the "extra" jobs, because the mission specialists are focused on the science and experiments and the commander is the "big picture" person making sure all the jobs get done and so forth. He’s pretty involved with the payload. The pilot does things like cleaning the avionics filters and all of the "housekeeping" kinds of things to maintain the order and keep everything running. We have something called in-flight maintenance. The pilot and, usually, the commander together fix something if it breaks. The pilot usually cooks meals more than other crew members, because they’re working so hard at the experiments side. The pilot also does observation photography, again because they have more opportunity to do it than people working on the experiments. So, it’s a range of different things. We so some calibrations and flight tests on every mission. Some missions have more than others and the pilots get to fly those. During rendezvous docking missions, the commander actually makes the docking, but after we separate, we do something called a "fly around" where the pilots fly to get experience flying the orbiter in space. Almost all our missions now are docking missions, because experience is very important.

It’s a lot of vibration, like someone ran into you from behind in a car wreck. Once you get to second stage, it smoothes out and you are picking up more acceleration, so it’s pressing down of your chest more. It makes it harder to breathe, but if you’re in good health, you’re fine. When you get into orbit and the main engines stop you are in free fall. Your arms float up. You are still strapped in so you don’t come out of your seat, but the checklists kind of start floating. They are tethered down, so you don’t lose them. It is a whole different world.

Well, even at launch you don’t hear much noise. It is very loud from the outside, but with all of the hearing protection and helmets, we don’t hear much. Plus, all of the noise is behind you. Particularly once the shuttle gets to super sonic speed. The noise and vibrations, which would be transferred out through the air really come in through the structure. They can’t catch up to you, because they are behind you. So all you hear are noises that would be transmitted through the material of the structure itself. Mostly you don’t hear a lot of that noise because a lot of it is low frequency. But you do feel the vibrations!

Is there a change when you go into space? You are in the vacuum of space and you don’t hear any real transition. You feel it. You see it on the gauges. I don’t remember a distinct noise change. I am sure there was one, but there are so many other things you are thinking about and paying attention to during that time.

That’s why we do a lot of experiments. We don’t understand many of the ways that weightlessness affects us. In general, humans can adapt pretty well to weightlessness. Some people get queasy stomachs and feel sick. Everyone experiences a fluid shift phenomenon. It’s like when you hang upside-down on the monkey bars. You also go to the bathroom an awful lot the first few days, because your body is trying to come up a new fluid balance. Eventually, you get to where your fluid balance is more normal and you don't feel as if you have such a puffy head. That takes 4 to 5 days and you feel pretty good after that.

Oh, yes! We really need to press ahead. So we take Tylenol or aspirin do deal with the headaches. I tend to have backaches (another of the things that can happen to you up there), so I stretch out. This happens because you don’t have gravity recompressing your spine everyday. You actually, stretch out a little each night when you go to bed and lie down. Of course, in the morning when you stand up your body kind of squishes down within a few minutes. Up in space, you don’t have any of that, of course, so over 3 or 4 days you stretch out. It stretches the ligaments and the tendons and the muscles in the back. You tend to have a sore back and you feel very stiff. Usually, I can bend down and touch my toes pretty easily. You feel stiff and sore. It takes a few days to get used to that. You don’t feel very well for the first few days either. You get through it, particularly because you are so excited to be there. Towards the end of the missions you get pretty tired. I have had some of my best night’s sleep in space. I have also had some of my "worst" nights from physical discomfort.

You have no problem sleeping, because you are exhausted. When you are walking around, you are fighting so hard to keep up with gravity. You just want to lie down and take it easy. It takes a few days to get over that and feel normal. It takes awhile to get back in the same physical condition. If you go into space in very good physical condition, you lose more and you lose it more quickly and it takes longer for you to get back to where you were. If you’re a couch potato, you can feel pretty good after a couple of days, because of your physical condition wasn’t as good to begin with.

It varies from mission to mission. If you count all of the people at who plan and put together missions, you have thousands. Here at Kennedy Space Center, alone, you probably have 3,000 people working on space shuttles and many others who work on things other than the shuttles such as communications and infrastructure, nurses and doctors. All of these people contribute to it and it would not be possible without them. Most astronauts don’t know much about what goes on around here and it is a lot more than you would ever imagine.

How long are the astronauts in the spacecraft before a launch?

Well, the commander is in the spacecraft about three hours previous to the launch. The rest of the crew is on about two and a half-hours before launch.

You’re paid a salary because you’re a government employee. If you’re a military officer you get paid the same amount as any other officer. You get flight pay, which is career incentive pay to keep you there because airline pilots are paid much more. A 747 pilot makes up to two times as much as what an astronaut is paid. So, that was the key reason why I retired, I needed to put my daughter through college. The government doesn’t pay very well, but there are many intangibles to this job. We don’t do it for the money.

What are some of those intangibles?

When you get to the main engine cut-off, it’s a sigh of relief to realize you’re there. It’s great! Especially for the pilot, "wow" we can forget all that main engine stuff. Your brain is just full of it all. It is exciting to look out the window and see the planet Earth. I mean you know its going to be beautiful. All your crewmates who have flown before tell you about it. "When you get up there, you’re just not going to believe it." You get up there and you just don’t believe it. Its sucks the breath right out of you. It’s so beautiful, so incredible. It’s unbelievable when you’re there. You can’t believe it’s happening. It feels as if it is a dream I had and I still haven’t woken up.

What do you do prior to launch?

The whole experience actually starts out in a relaxed pace. You just spend the time having other people do work. All of the work of the space shuttle itself is controlled by the center. They are getting all the information in the systems working properly. The crew basically sits there and lets other people strap them in and they check all of their personal equipment, and make sure that all things are working right. They check that the oxygen is functioning and all that. They do some communications check with the control center here and back in Houston to make sure everything’s functioning. At some point, the strapping crew leaves, and they close up the hatch. The commander has to do some pressure checks with some switches. It’s really quite simple and you don’t do anything unless the ground calls. It’s much slower pace than flying an airplane with all the checklists you’ve got to do. The last few minutes before launch it starts to get busy--especially for the pilot. He has to start the auxiliary power units and verify that they are working right. He has to make sure the hydraulics are working. That’s the point where you really start to get serious about this. The two minutes before launch, when you lower your visors and turn on your suit oxygen, then it really gets real. There is a certain sequence of things that happen all the way down that to 31 seconds, when the computers take over on the countdown. From that point humans can stop the countdown, but they don’t run the countdown. If something goes wrong, they can flip one switch in the control center and it can stop everything. There is also a switch in the cockpit that the commander can throw and can stop everything. But other than that you’re just kind of along for the ride. The main engine starts 6 seconds prior to launch. If they are working right, the solid rocket booster’s light. As soon as they light, there is no turning back. "Now this is it. Here we go."

It is usually about a year for a shuttle flight. That varies some. Some of the recent missions have a shorter period of time for training. Also, it depends on the experience of the crewmembers. Newer crews take longer to train.

Most of it is more boring than Space Camp would have you believe. We do some exciting things, like the deep-water survival training. We get to splash around in these life rafts and go parasailing, dropping in the water. The commanders and pilots get to fly the T-38 jets all the time. We also fly the shuttle trainer aircraft and we spend a lot of time in this little box called a "simulator." It is smaller than a room, but big enough for four people. That’s where we practice the fire scenarios over and over again. It’s fun to do if you’ve never done it before. You get to go for a simulator ride and you are really jazzed about it. It’s great! But when you have been in if for hundreds and hundreds of hours, Ugh! Some of those runs we do so many times in our suits and it’s just hot and sweaty and we just have to do it. There are a lot of meetings and studying, using computer-based training (or single system training). It is not as exciting as some of the other stuff. We literally have a pre-training catalog from just one mission. It’s a list of all the different events you have to do and the proficiency you have to get. On a balance, it’s pretty fun. Training for a mission is a lot more fun than being an astronaut who IS NOT trained for a mission.

For me it was very humbling. It is just so overwhelmingly beautiful and there is an immensity to it. There is a difference to looking at that view than any other view I have ever seen. It made me feel very small and insignificant. It’s wonderful. Every time you look out the window is different. Even if you are flying over the same spot, there is always different lighting, different weather. It is different all time. There is a tremendous variety.

No, you would have to talk to a flight specialist. Pilots and commanders don’t do the space walks.

I did, actually. My dad was a pilot in the Air Force. I knew about military flying and grew up around that. I loved math and science as a kid. I started doing model rockets in the 6^th grade. From there, I decided that I wanted to major in aeronautical engineering. I loved studying about propulsion, drag and lift and all that kind of stuff. That all got me pointed in the right direction. I saw the first U.S. space walk. His name was Ed White. I saw that on a color TV live—while it was happening. I still never got to do a space walk, but I got to go to space.

It was a dream when I was younger. There were fewer astronauts then. It was still a new thing. The year I graduated from college was the first year that they were picking space shuttle astronauts. I had my degree in aeronautical engineering and I had done very well in school and the Airforce Academy (where he graduated first in his class). I looked at some of the backgrounds of the people who were being selected to be astronauts and thought, "I don’t know. I am part of the way there. Maybe this could happen." It was a realistic dream at that point. I still knew it was a long shot, but I just went off to pilot training and graduate school and did the best I could. I eventually got the chance to go to test pilot school and I did well. I applied for the astronaut program the year after I finished test pilot school. I was 33 when I applied and I was 34 when I was picked. It is not something that happens right out of college. It takes a lot of years.

Like I mentioned, I majored in aeronautical engineering. My graduate degrees are in aeronautics and applied physics. I was a test pilot, which requires you to be an engineer and to be a pilot. I had all the flying training during my years in the Air Force. That is typical for the pilot astronauts. All of the stuff you do in the military prepares you for being a pilot. The shuttle is a very high performance air space vehicle and the people who fly it need to be military test pilots. But there is so much more to the shuttle program now. We really need scientists and people who can make a difference with they payloads and who can make the most of the missions as possible. The mission specialists come from a wider variety of educational backgrounds, but almost all of them have Ph.D’s. They have very solid educational backgrounds. Either route these days is good; research scientist or test pilot.

A phone call. The way it works is that you apply and send in all your paperwork. They pick people to interview. They will usually interview about five times as many people as they are going to hire. They pick a class about every two years. You get some hints that you are in the running when the FBI starts coming around asking friends, neighbors and co-workers about you. That means they are doing a background check and they don’t do those on everyone they interview. They do a few more than the number of people they are going to hire. They have their list already decided with X number of spots. So, I got wind from my mother-in-law when she said, "Some guy was asking about you." I was like, "What did you say?" You also compare notes with people you know. Finally, the phone call comes. That day, I came to work at around 12:00 noon and the buzz was all around. My secretary said, "Rick you got some calls today." So I picked up the phone and called the astronaut selection office and talked to the guy who runs all the administration. I told him I was in my office and he told me they would get back with me. If you are selected, the phone call comes from the head of the selection board and if you are not selected, someone else on the board calls and tells you they appreciate you, but try again and stuff like that. So the second you hear his voice, you know if you were selected or not. It was the boss! I knew it was the head guy. He was from Texas so he had an accent. "Well Rick, we’d like ya to come work fer us if yer still interested." I said, "Whenever you want me there, I’ll be there!" That was that.

Yes, I do! Lots of advice. You have to focus on it, whether that’s being an astronaut—or anything. You need to figure out what you like and what you love, what you want to spend your time doing, and you need to focus on it. There are so many distractions for kids these days. They are not all bad. Some of them are very bad. Some of today’s very popular stars are terrible role models. Some of them are very rich, so we think that’s someone we want to emulate. Frankly, a lot of these people are the - - - - of the Earth and you shouldn’t be following them. When it comes to the drugs and things like that, if you ever do them, and they find out, you will NEVER be an astronaut. It just doesn’t mesh. So kids today, who will eventually be astronauts, are very good students—maybe considered geeks, maybe not. You don’t need to be an athlete, but you do need to be in good physical condition and you need to take care of yourself. You need to work and understand that success really comes—in most endeavors—through long, patient work. It doesn’t happen overnight! If someone is really interested, they have to work hard in math and science and they have to prepare themselves over the years. I will tell you what I think. They are going to be hiring astronauts for many years to come. They are hiring more now than they used to. So, opportunities are out there for kids that are in the 6^th grade now. Fifteen or twenty years from now, kids who have done the right thing might be the first ones on Mars. They will be doing things that we are only dreaming about now. Imagine how excited people will be when the first man steps foot on Mars--like they were when Neil Armstrong landed on the Moon. It CAN happen for you in the future, you just have to be prepared.