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(slate: When did you want to be an astronaut?)

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James P. Dutton Jr.: Well, for me, I was one of those kids that wanted to do it from a

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pretty young age. I had that goal. I'm not sure exactly where it was, somewhere in grade

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school. And at that time, it was really one of probably many, you know, career

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aspirations. Along with playing in the NBA, or something like that, which didn't work out

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at 5-foot-9. But, about junior high school, I started to get a little more serious about the

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idea. Had a librarian from my middle school who on the career day helped me to look up

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NASA's address and write to NASA asking about how to become an astronaut. And I got

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a brochure back from them telling me that, you know, you need to study math, science or

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engineering. And talked about the requirements for a pilot astronaut, which is what

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appealed to me the most. And, so, that's when I really started to set my sights on one of

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the service academies and just kind of took it step by step from there.

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(slate: Is there a difference between landing the shuttle and the training aircraft?)

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James P. Dutton Jr.: Well, the little bit that I got to fly the shuttle, which was just about

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30 seconds flying around the heading alignment coming prior to rolling out on final, it

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flew almost exactly like the STA. Just felt like I was back in that airplane. You're partly

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so focused on the task, that by the time we were wheels down, I sort of went, 'I can't

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believe we just did all that for real.' But at the same time, I remember as we were coming

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around, looking down toward the, we had some clouds down below and toward the

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Vehicle Assembly Building, and trying to pick out the runway and just thinking, 'I can't

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believe this is like the real one,' because I had seen that picture so many times from the

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shuttle trainer.

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(slate: What was launch like?)

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James P. Dutton Jr.: As far as the actual launch, a couple things surprised me. One was

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the engine start. I thought it seemed a little bit more chaotic in the vehicle in terms of the

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vibration when the engines started than I remembered from our sim (simulator). So, that

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initial startup from to 100 percent on the engines is about six seconds prior to launch, and

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so I remember noticing that. The vehicle just shook in a different way than I had

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expected. And then when the solid rocket boosters lit, it felt like a bomb had gone off

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under your seat, you know. And basically, that's what happened, 6 million pounds of

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thrust, you know, instantly it's an immediate hit.

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(slate: Describe the solid rocket boosters dropping away.)

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James P. Dutton Jr.: They're small jets that fire as the SRBs come off, but also, we have

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forward jets that fire to protect our windows from any debris coming off the solid rocket

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boosters. So, you see this big flash out the front windows once they come off and then it

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gets really smooth. It's pretty rumbly inside the vehicle while you're on the solids, and

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then once you get off them, you're sort of on railroad tracks. It's quite a ride, the 3 g's,

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you weigh three times what you normally weigh. Then, of course, you've got the suit on

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with different valves and things, so stuff's poking into you. It's really not bad, but you're

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aware that you're heavy. And then you go instantly from weighing three times your

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normal weight to weighing nothing. And floating up in your seat, and straps and all kind

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of stuff, you know, books floating up and dust comes up. So, it's really neat how quick

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that happens.

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(slate: Did living in space meet your expectations?)

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James P. Dutton Jr.: Well, I had high expectations and they were all exceeded. They

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really were. There's very little that I felt really surprised by. I think the veterans on our

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crew made a real effort to every time we were in the simulator talk about what's going to

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be like living up there, what it's like operating in zero-g, things that surprised them on

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their flights. So, we were, I think, really well prepared by those folks.

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(slate: Describe re-entry.)

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James P. Dutton Jr.: And then we were fortunate enough on our return, we came back

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over the U.S. for our landing. So, we hit sunrise on orbit somewhere around the West

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Coast, but we really couldn't see the ground because it was still dark on the ground. And,

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about the time we were over Wyoming, we picked up the sunrise on the ground looking

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right down on the Rockies. It was absolutely gorgeous and we were at 40-miles-high.

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We'd been at 200 miles for 16 days, so it looked really low and fast at 40-miles-high,

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which was kind of funny.

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(slate: Take nothing for granted.)

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James P. Dutton Jr.: I mean, it's very fulfilling to have been blessed to go up and fulfill

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that dream. You know, to have experience what I had hoped to experience all these years,

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knowing that each step of the way, you're just very fortunate to make it to the next gate.

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You know, there's health issues, there's professional career things that can come up that