I recently had the opportunity to attend a panel discussion by the crew of the STS-121 mission, which took off for the International Space Station (ISS) on July 4, 2006. (I watched the launch from Cocoa Beach.) Five astronauts of the seven-person crew were in the panel. The other two were busy with astronaut stuff (being astronaughty, haha). One was on the ISS, and the other is on the crew of the STS-115 mission, and may or may not launch tomorrow. But the panel of astronauts was great. They are smart, interesting, engaging and good-looking. Rather than being self-important about their elite status, they were humbled by their good fortune and thrilled with the experience of having been in space.

Several months ago, I did some research on what it takes to be an astronaut. It’s not that I am aspiring to be one. My space dreams were squashed young when someone told me in Elementary School that you needed perfect eyesight (which is not entirely true). But astronauts are fascinating. At the time, they had an open call for applications to the astronaut program. I looked over the application process. It’s like applying for graduate school increased by an order of magnitude. They aren’t accepting applications right now, but you can visit the site to see what it takes.

But the shuttle fleet retires in 2010, and the new Orion capsules aren’t targeted to launch until 2014, leaving four space-free years for US astronauts. I am assuming that we will have some deals with other countries to get people back and forth from the ISS, but it’s hard to find out what is going on. Maybe I should’ve asked the astronauts at the panel. But talking about going to space is way more fun than asking how NASA’s going to get us there.