For the last several years and culminating in six months in orbit next year, I've been training for my third space flight. This one is almost in a category completely different than the previous two, specifically to live in on the space station for six months, to command a space ship and to fly a new rocket ship.

Early success is a terrible teacher. You're essentially being rewarded for a lack of preparation, so when you find yourself in a situation where you must prepare, you can't do it. You don't know how.

It’s not enough to shelve your own competitive streak. You have to try, consciously, to help others succeed.

I've been lucky enough to fly to space twice.

There is a sunrise or a sunset from space every 92 minutes so there is an incredible amount of beauty to see from up there.

Still, I also know that most people, including me, tend to applaud the wrong things: the showy, dramatic record-setting sprint rather than the years of dogged preparation or the unwavering grace displayed during a string of losses. Applause, then, never bore much relation to the reality of my life as an astronaut, which was not all about, or even mostly about, flying around in space.

Spaceflight isn't just about doing experiments, it's about an extension of human culture.