Reflections on Journeying Into Space
/Long before I began writing books, I was writing magazine articles about space flight. I was fortunate enough to meet everyone who ever walked on the moon, and in many cases sit down with them for extended conversations and interviews about their experiences.
I spoke to people from many different nations, who flew to different space stations, in a variety of different spacecraft, representing different nations and decades of history.
Here’s a representative sample, in the form of a video, of 24 quotations from those magazine articles that I thought nicely showcased the experience of flying in space.
Looking at these early articles now, I notice that I interviewed people from many different nations, of different ethnicities. But while I interviewed many women about their experiences in the space program, their voices are not found here amongst the spacefarers. In the first two decades of human spaceflight, only one woman flew in space — Valentina Tereshkova. I talked with her about a book chapter I wrote, but never interviewed her for a magazine. It’s a reflection of how much perhaps things have changed in terms of who humanity chooses to send into space.
Many of the people you hear from in this video have since passed away. I am glad I spoke to them when I did.