I enjoy traveling and seeing new places - especially places where I can go hiking.

Why did I want to be an astronaut? That's not an easy question to answer because I know a lot of kids want to be astronauts when they grow up but it stuck with me and I think just maybe growing up in Houston and always having the astronauts and the Johnson Space Center in my backyard, I was always aware of the space program.

Houston's a very big town. It's changed a lot over my lifetime, it's quite a bit bigger now than it was when I was growing up, but it's a fantastic city. I know a lot of people perhaps don't give it the credit it's due but it's a wonderful city that's got absolutely fantastic restaurants.

Well, I was quite young when we first walked on the moon; I had just turned four, but I did watch it on TV. I think that just set the seed right then that that would be a really interesting thing to do.

Sometimes you can have too much information. You keep gathering information and never bother to find out what the real answer is.

I liked learning things. I liked solving problems and doing my homework. I realize a lot of kids don't like that, but I always enjoyed going to school.