Duane G. Carey

And, one thing I definitely enjoyed personally, from a selfish point of view, was exploration and going to places that I had never been to before and learning, you know, meeting the people and getting to know, new sights and sounds, etc.

So, I decided that whatever I was, wanted to do with my life, it would have to do, it would have to have something to do with the exploration and doing new things.

I could do exploration in this particular career field, and it was a goal that, even if I didn't reach it, it was so high it seemed almost impossible, but even if I didn't reach it, I would still have a good time and a very satisfying career.

I consider myself to be very fortunate in my career, my timing has worked out.

And, so I set my goals on astronaut because, as a military aviator, it was, I considered that to be about the peak of a flying career.

Now, I've never flown in space; but the folks who have say that on landing day, you know, you've just spent maybe a week and a half, sometimes two weeks in orbit and you're used to the things happening slowly in space.

Those folks out in the space suits are going to be getting beat up.

And, obviously as a, as one who likes to travel around myself a lot, I think the Earth is a beautiful place. And, I'm looking forward to some new perspectives.

Because when we're in space, my job is primarily getting us there and getting us back.

Now you're coming back to Earth, and things are getting more and more dynamic.

I'm looking forward to coming back, back to Earth, the landing, the views.

That's what Hubble can do for us. It can tell us whether the universe is expanding forever or if one day it's going to come back together.