It's different, but it's very pretty out here. I suppose they are going to make a big deal of all this.

It never hurts to have friends around, so that's why you'd form a crew.

Now and then I miss the excitement about being in the cockpit of an airplane and doing new things.

I have been in relatively high-risk businesses all of my adult life. Few of the others, however, had the possibility of direct gains in knowledge which this one had. I have confidence in the equipment, the planning, the training. I suspect that on a risk-gain ratio, this project would compare very, very favorably with those to which I've been accustomed on the past 20 years.

All in all, for someone who was immersed in, fascinated by, and dedicated to flight, I was disappointed by the wrinkle in history that had brought me along one generation late. I had missed all the great times and adventures in flight.

The view of the moon that we've been having recently is really spectacular. It fills about three-quarters of the hatch window, and of course we can see the entire circumference even though part of it is in complete shadow and part of it is in earthshine. It's a view worth the price of the trip.

You've got to expect things are going to go wrong. And we always need to prepare ourselves for handling the unexpected.