From Apollo to Artemis offers readers a firsthand account of your half-century spent at NASA, chronicling everything from the Apollo missions to the Artemis program. Why was this an important book for you to write?

It was an important book for me to write only in the sense that it made my friends and family happy. They had been encouraging (begging?) me to tell the stories from my NASA career for the past 10 or 12 years and they finally convinced me to do it. I didn’t write the book for money or fame. My hope is that it might inspire someone to “reach for the stars” even if they’re unsure they will get there.

What were some ideas that were important for you to share in this book?

As I mention in the Introduction of my book, “Failure is not an option” is a fine slogan if you’re working to safely return 3 astronauts to Earth against great odds in a severely damaged spacecraft (Apollo 13). But in everyday life, failure should be a requirement. I believe in the adage that “If you’re not failing occasionally, you’re not trying hard enough.” I shared the idea that you should not let the fear of failure prevent you from doing what you really want to do in life.

How did you decide what to include and leave out in your memoir?

For the most part, I left my family out of the book, since they are very private individuals – hence, the book was written as a memoir about my life with NASA and is not an autobiography. I also had a goal of not sharing secrets that I shouldn’t be sharing and not being overly critical of people I encountered throughout my career. While I did write about the tragedies NASA has experienced over my lifetime, I wanted the book to be mostly lighthearted and positive.

What was the most challenging part of writing your memoir and what was the most rewarding?

The most challenging part was wanting desperately to provide accurate details and information on what I was writing about, knowing that many NASA friends and colleagues, who in many cases were part of the stories, would be reading them with a critical eye. The most rewarding thing for me is knowing that my two sons will have a record of the many events and activities I was privileged to participate in over my career with NASA, which they were too young to understand as they were growing up.

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