My entire family used to go out stargazing.

My father would point out the different stars and planets and constellations.

I was always fascinated by spaceflight.

I loved airplanes. I loved rockets.

I read every single book in my elementary school library about the subject.

And I remember also my parents and their friends getting very excited about the Apollo

program.

I was pretty young.

I was six years old.

It was, of course, it was July of 1969.

Just like most people around the world, I was glued to a TV set.

I was absolutely convinced that by the time I was an adult, everyone would be flying in

space.

We'd all have our flying cars and everyone would be flying in space. We'd all have our

flying cars and everyone would be traveling to space just like you would on a commercial airline.

And I thought the astronauts were the coolest people around. I thought they were cooler than any

athletes or musicians or anyone else. These guys were it. So I wanted to grow up to be like them.

Hi, I'm Chris Marshall, and this is for all mankind, the official podcast.

So many kids dream of putting on a helmet and flying into space.

But what does it take to actually become an astronaut?

On today's episode, I'll speak with a few former astronauts who will share stories about what real ask hands, or astronaut candidates,

go through in order to become space flight ready, from bolting across the sky in a T-38 jet,

...