Eventually private enterprise will be able to send people into orbit, but I suspect initially it's going to have to be with NASA's help. Whether it's going to be a consortium or one entity remains to be seen. I could be wrong. I could be one of the old fogies! Rocket science is tough, and rockets have a way of failing. It happens. A company has to be willing to bear the risk of its rocket failing. It's a very large capital investment.

It's easy to sleep floating around - it's very comfortable. But you have to be careful that you don't float into somebody or something!

I find myself looking around for other new, interesting opportunities to dive into.

When you can feel that close to something you're used to seeing from this great distance, well, it changes a person.

I don't have any nicknames.

Ever been to Disneyland? That was definitely an E ticket!

It was hard to become an astronaut. Not anywhere near as much physical training as people imagine, but a lot of mental training, a lot of learning. You have to learn everything there is to know about the Space Shuttle and everything you are going to be doing, and everything you need to know if something goes wrong, and then once you have learned it all, you have to practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice until everything is second nature, so it's a very, very difficult training, and it takes years.