If someone offered me a free trip to the International Space Station, I would decline. I like Earth. I like the internet. I like Diet Coke. I have cats. I write about brave people - I'm not one of them.

CASIS has to succeed because for it not to succeed would be a huge setback for the International Space Station program.

There is a project that's underway called the interplanetary Internet. It's in operation between Earth and Mars. It's operating on the International Space Station. It's part of the spacecraft that's in orbit around the Sun that's rendezvoused with two planets.

A space station is a rangy monstrosity, a giant erector set built by a madman.

If you don't like airline food, you'll probably have the same impression of space station food. I would not fly to space for the food.

At this point I thought 'We made it,' by which I meant 'We survived.' I also was acutely aware that my childhood dream of flying into space had just come true.