Astronauts will remain the explorers, the pioneers-the first to go back to moon and on to Mars. But I think it's really important to make space space available to as many people as we can. It's going to be a while before we can launch people for less than $20 million a ticket. But that day is coming.

The food isn't too bad. It's very different from the food that the astronauts ate in the very early days of the space program.

It takes a couple of years just to get the background and knowledge that you need before you can go into detailed training for your mission.

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

You know, I go around the country a lot.

The most anxious time was during launch, just because that is so dramatic.

I liked math - that was my favorite subject - and I was very interested in astronomy and in physical science.