Lunch with an Astronaut

Here is a photo of me with astronaut, Bill Pogue. Our lunch group only contained about 10 people, so I was able to ask as many questions as I wanted...and trust me, I DID!
Bill flew for the USAF Thunderbirds and was the test pilot for both US Air Force and British Royal Air Force before becoming an astronaut in 1966. He served in the support crew for Apollo 7, 11 and 14 missions. He was the pilot for Skylab 4 which was the final Skylab mission and first one to spend the longest time in space...84 days! For those of you who don't know- Skylab was our first space station. It reentered Earth's atmosphere in 1979, scattering a trail of debris over the Indian Ocean and Western Austraila.
I found Mr. Pogue to be very interesting and funny. Did you know that you grow 3 inches taller in space? I didn't, and neither did they- which caused painful bruising on their shoulders after a spacewalk because they didn't fit very well in their Earth tailored suits. Without gravity to compress the spine- the disks between your verebrea expand...causing a growth of about 3 inches.
Mr. Pogue is also the author of "How do you go to the bathroom in Space?" and "Space Trivia" of which I bought and had both books signed.