“IT'S THE BIGGEST PROBLEM THAT WE'RE NOT WRITING ABOUT”

All About Space speaks with the former NASA astronaut about his time in space and his newfound ‘cosmic perspective’

- Daisy Dobrijevic

BIO

Colonel Terry Virts Former NASA astronaut Virts has spent over seven months in space on the ISS, where he captured the reality of his experience through photography. Virts has famously taken more photos from space than any other human, having taken over 300,000 spectacular images. He is also the author of the National Geographic photography book View From Above, as well as his latest book, How to Astronaut.

At what moment did you decide you wanted to become an astronaut?

When I was a little kid. The first book I read in kindergarten was about Apollo. Growing up I had pictures of the very first red white and blue 1974 F16, Space Shuttle Columbia and the Andromeda Galaxy. Those are the kinds of things I had all over my wall when I was a boy. When I was a kid I remember going to the Air and Space Museum and watching an IMAX movie called To Fly! and going: ‘That is amazing. I want to be a pilot and an astronaut.’ That IMAX movie really impacted me.

What was your least favourite part of your astronaut training?