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\h        Music

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\h        SLATE: Do you feel like you have a place in history as commander

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\h        of the last shuttle mission?

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\h        FERGUSON: I'm still pinching myself over that one. You know, it's good to be last,

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\h        it would have been wonderful to be first and if I had to hold up a few people

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\h        or a few missions that really stick out in my mind for the space shuttle, gosh,

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\h        STS-1 was just incredible. To, you know, here's this vehicle we've never really test

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\h        flown in the vertical position before with its rocket engines and we're not going to do it,

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\h         we're going to put two people on it and we're going to send it into space.

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\h        It's historically significant in that it's the end of the program.

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\h        We've learned a lot of lessons through the 30 years that we've flown it

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\h        and the space shuttle's a much safer vehicle now and we don't take those dramatic

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\h        risks like we did with STS-1. So, like I said, historically significant because it's the last,

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\h        but I don't consider it to be the dramatic moment from a personal achievement

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\h        standpoint that or any technical achievement like STS-1 really was.

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\h        SLATE: What made you want to become an astronaut?

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\h        FERGUSON: Well, I don't think there was really a moment,

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\h        I mean, I like a lot of people my age, I watched the men walk on the moon when I was

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\h        just a youngster, you know, 8, 9, 10 years old. I remember being enthralled by it,

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\h        I'd draw little pictures of the rocket and it was amazing to me.

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\h        Now I don't think my interest stayed at that level. But as I reached high school I realized

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\h        that I'd like to fly and the Navy always intrigued me so I went into the Navy,

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\h        learned to fly, became a carrier pilot and then learned that a lot of the early astronauts

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\h        were Navy and Air Force test pilots. Tried to go to test pilot school and things just

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\h        started to flow in a direction that the next natural step was to apply to be an astronaut.

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\h        SLATE: Describe building the International Space Station such as during

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\h        your STS-126 mission.

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\h        FERGUSON: There was a theme to the 126 mission. In the MPLM we had living

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\h        stations, sleep stations, we had a kitchen, we had a bedroom, we had a kitchen,

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\h        we had a bathroom, we had a gym. I mean, it was really amazing if you looked at it,

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\h        we had the space–based version of the American dream.

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\h        It was great to be a part of that. It was great to turn the space station from,

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\h        you know, this modular tube-like structure into a home that people can live in for,

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\h        you know, it'll be 15 years by the time the space station program runs out in 2020.

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\h        It was good to be a part of that, plus we did a lot of what we think was great work

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\h        restoring the solar alpha joint over on the right side had kind of ground to a halt.

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\h        We got that thing up and running so it was very rewarding after that flight.

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\h        SLATE: Do you remember the first time you flew a shuttle simulated landing

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\h        the Shuttle Training Aircraft?

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\h        FERGUSON: It was kind of one of those gee-whiz moments in spaceflight

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\h        I kind of call them now but, you know, of course, I hadn't been in space at the time

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\h        and I thought to myself, wow, I'm really here flying the shuttle simulator,

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\h        I mean it was a, it was just a wild moment for me as a pilot.

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\h        You know, pilots always aspire to fly the newest, greatest thing out there.

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\h        This is my first chance to fly a real shuttle approach, I was just in heaven, it was,

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\h        it was spectacular, yeah, so I remember it well.

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\h        SLATE: What stands out about that first Shuttle Training Aircraft flight?

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\h        FERGUSON: Boy, I'll tell you, what I do remember, a moment from that was,

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\h        you know you fly to a position that's abeam the runway, it's 28,000 feet and I looked

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\h        down and I thought, 'There is absolutely no way we can possibly land on that runway

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\h        right there. And, you know, of course it got proved to me about a thousand times since

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\h        that it's entirely possible, but it is a largely unnatural act that we've just gotten

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\h        used to over time.

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\h        SLATE: What do you tell people who want to become astronauts?

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\h        FERGUSON: For me it was always something that was impossible, you know?

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\h        You just didn't even ask to do something like that because guys like you don't do things

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\h        like this. That's a message I try to take out there, especially to the youngsters,

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\h        who, you know, maybe aspire to do great things but perhaps are unwilling or unable to

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\h        take that initial step. You know, don't sell yourself short, get out there and,