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\h        Music.

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\h        How did you become an astronaut?

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\h        Rick Mastracchio: I had always hoped to get selected as an astronaut when I came down.

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\h        I came down to Houston in 1987, and then I had been applying, ever since then,

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\h        applying every year for the astronaut selection.

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\h        And it took me nine years, till 1996, to finally get selected. So, I had always hoped to get selected.

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\h        But, I had a great job as an engineer. So, if I didn't get selected, I was more than happy where I was.

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\h        I was always interested in space and science, and things like that.

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\h        But I never really thought or even knew that you could become an astronaut.

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\h        I had no clue until I saw an advertisement in a magazine when I was maybe 27 years old, 26 years old.

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\h        We saw an advertisement in a magazine and I sent away for an astronaut application.

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\h        And from that point on, I started to apply.

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\h        Memories of Endeavour...

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\h        Rick Mastracchio: I had the opportunity to go out to Palmdale,

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\h        I believe, when NASA was accepting Endeavour from the contractor.

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\h        And I was actually one of the first people to sit in the Endeavour space shuttle as an engineer,

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\h        and helped to verify and check out the Endeavour flight control systems before we accepted it for NASA.

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\h        What unusual event do you remember from flying in a shuttle?

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\h        Rick Mastracchio: Well, Endeavour was my mission, STS-118, about two-and-a-half years ago and that was my first spacewalk.

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\h        And one of the things I got to do on Endeavour was,

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\h        and we exit out of the space station airlock and all the spacewalks now.

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\h        But I got the opportunity to translate into the Endeavour payload bay.

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\h        So, I'll always remember translating down that payload bay and going into the back of

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\h        Endeavour to work and remove some of the hardware from there that we were going to install on space station.

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\h        It was on my first spacewalk and it was an     
    exciting moment for me.

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\h        What is the hardest task you performed during a spacewalk?

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\h        Rick Mastracchio: We had a problem. We had an 1,800-pound ammonia tank.

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\h        We were trying to install this ammonia tank on the International Space Station.

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\h        We bolted one of the bolts down partially, but it wouldn't drive the rest of the way.

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\h        And we were having problems getting some of the other bolts to line up

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\h        because the soft-dock feature would not grab. It was just resisting and it would not go down.

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\h        So, we spent a good hour, hour-and-a-half, using various tools and techniques,

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\h        even trying to kind of slam the tank home to get it onto its soft-dock so we could bolt it up and install it on the space station.

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\h        And we tried for a long time and we just could not get it.

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\h        Eventually, I was kind of thinking in the back of my head, 'Well,

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\h        I think what we're going to have to go is just release all these bolts and then

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\h        try to kind of wiggle it around and get it installed.'

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\h        And, of course, that's what Houston came back a little bit while, after that and they said,

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\h        'Hey guys, just remove all the bolts and let's try that.'

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\h        So, as soon as we did that, we got it installed and all was well.

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\h        As a spacewalker, what memories stand out?

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\h        Rick Mastracchio: My first time out the airlock on a spacewalk,

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\h        I opened up the thermal cover and opened up the hatch and we look outside and it was nighttime.

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\h        So, which was kind of good because you're looking right down on the

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\h        Earth and so I wasn't distracted by the Earth traveling below me.

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\h        But it was, what was going on below was a lighting storm down below.

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\h        And I could see the lightning dancing in the darkness, you know, the darkness of the Earth down below.

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\h        So that was a pretty neat lightshow.

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\h        So, I'll never forget going out the hatch that first time and just seeing that lightning all over the place.

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\h        That was a great experience. You know, every spacewalk is a little different.

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\h        Some spacewalks, you go out there and you really feel like, 'Wow, I really did a great job on that one.

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\h        I felt good about it.' Sometimes, you come in and say, 'Wow, that one really took a lot of energy.

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\h        Took a lot more out of me.' But every spacewalk is a little different.

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\h        There's nothing more satisfying, though,

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\h        is when you go out there and you install a piece of a space station or you swap out a busted piece

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\h        of hardware with a new one and Houston calls and says, 'Hey.

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\h        We tried that new piece of hardware, it's up and running.' You know, that's always a great feeling.

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\h        Thoughts on the space shuttle legacy...

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\h        Rick Mastracchio: I think people are going to look back on the space shuttle and

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\h        think it was one of the most incredible vehicles ever built by mankind.

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\h        Right now, I've been saying it and I'll continue to say it, that it's the most versatile,

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\h        the most capable vehicle, spaceship, ever built by mankind.

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\h        And it's going to remain that for many, many, many years.

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\h        There's nothing even on the drawing books to go off and build something like the space shuttle.

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\h        And I think once it's gone it's going to be one of those things where people say,

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\h        'Well, now that it's gone, we sure wish we had it back.'