Astronauts working for the government will always need to be either pilots or mission specialists. Those who want to be pilots should have military experience - ideally, a test pilot background.

A hybrid human-robot mission to investigate an asteroid affords a realistic opportunity to demonstrate new technological capabilities for future deep-space travel and to test spacecraft for long-duration spaceflight.

Astronauts are not superhuman. They lead ordinary lives and have varied personalities.

Because of his military service, Dad was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Do we really need these big, gigantic, heavy rockets? What if we launch a rocket that's empty, and its sole purpose is to act as a source of fuel on the Moon? Who should build that? Well, I think the U.S. should build that.

On a standard space shuttle crew, two of the astronauts have a test pilot background - the commander and the pilot.