“I own a flight school.” Those words spoken in 1973 by a plastic surgeon across an operating table in my last semester of medical school were the beginning of my aviation career. When I said I had always hoped to take flying lessons, he invited me for a test flight that weekend at the Memphis airport. Getting into the air and leaving all the sick people behind was exhilarating: I was hooked. My father gave me flying lessons as a graduation...

How did our nation get to the moon in less than ten years from the time we first sent a man into space? Thousands of people had a hand in that bold adventure. Today I meet them, their children, and their grandchildren who can’t wait to tell me their part in that story with pride. It was not until I got to NASA that I learned to appreciate the true value of teamwork. We had close-knit teams that made sure our spaceflights went well. It took me a...

Imagine flying like Superwoman. You could in space. In fact, you MUST fly everywhere. Walking or swimming is not an option. An astronaut learns fast on that first flight the power of a gentle push. Shove off as you learned to do in the swimming pool, and you will crash against your target with no way to slow down along the way. “Whoooaaa!” is a frequent call heard from the weightless rookie on the first day in space. The preferred technique?...

On April 12, 1981, I stood near a swamp in Florida with a Search and Rescue team, in case we were needed. We watched the Space Shuttle Columbia, a butterfly bolted to a bullet, roar above the trees and into the sky on its first flight. The magnificence of the moment cannot be described. We cheered, we cried, and we felt so lucky to be present at the birth of the Space Shuttle era. On June 5, 1991, I launched aboard that same vehicle on my...

Shuttle launches were always special. We were friends helping friends get ready for great adventures. Hoot had landed safely from his second mission, and I was in training for my next one. The space program was gearing up for a year of many spectacular launches. It was full speed ahead. Not that there hadn’t been problems. On Hoot’s recent mission, there had been many glitches. On one launch attempt a brave engineer had stopped the countdown...

Monday morning, January 16, 1978 was like any other in the life of a surgical resident at the VA Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. The final six months of my training were dragging on. There were patients to admit, cases to do, rounds to make, and lectures to attend. My future after that June was uncertain. My pager went off: a phone call was awaiting for me at the front desk. “For you, Dr. Seddon,” said the operator. In each life there are...