Former astronaut longs for Hawaii
Before retiring, Mark C. Lee flew on four NASA space flights, traveled more than 13 million miles, circled the globe 517 times and did an untethered spacewalk. In 1992, he and his then-wife, Nancy Jan Davis, made history by becoming the first married astronauts to fly together in space. Based out of the Houston area, Lee, an engineer, spoke about what it was like to view the Earth from his unique perspective. An edited version of our conversation follows.
Q: Tell us a little bit about your first mission.
A: I was on the middeck during re-entering, so I didn’t have any responsibility for landing except to sit there. So I asked the commander if it was OK that I stay up. In four hours, you go around the world three times. It felt like I owned the world. It was one of those things where I was the only one around looking at it just floating around. Out of all the time I spent in space, it was probably the most special time.
Q: After having been in space, does traveling via airplane or sightseeing feel mundane?
A: From space, you see the big picture, but you don’t see the details. You can see the Arc de Triomphe in Paris and all the roads that emanate in different directions. But being there and walking around is a completely different story.
Q: Where do you head to when you want to get away from it all?
A: My favorite place to visit is Hawaii. We go out there almost every year. I like the Big Island. I like the fact that it has so many different climate zones and terrain and things like that. I just enjoy the starkness of it and also the beauty of it. I like to hike and visit the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. You can hike across and go down into the volcanoes. And the steam coming up is just one of those things that I find intriguing, because that’s kind of how the Earth was formed, and it’s neat to go and be able to be a part of that.
Q: Which area of the world is still on your travel bucket list?
A: The Middle East is a place I wanted to go to previously. I would’ve loved to have visited Israel and Egypt. But I think the time for feeling comfortable enough to go is a little bit past.
Q: What are some of the places you’ve been to that stand out?
A: I lived in Okinawa for 21⁄2 years. I spent a lot of time in Japan. I’ve been to Russia, Australia and all over Europe. I’ve been down to South America a couple times. I’ve spent some winters in Alaska and been all across Canada. I do like going back to Hawaii, though, because the weather is perfect and I just enjoy being out there.
Q: Are you an adventurous eater?
A: I enjoy food. When I was in Okinawa, I visited Korea quite often, maybe about 15 times. I spent a lot of time there. We’d fly to Kunsan Air Base and take it from there. I ate just about everything. We would go to different restaurants, and everyone would order a dish that could feed a family, and then we would pass them around. We would drink, eat the food with kimchi and talk. For more from the reporter, visit www.jaehakim.com.