A child's dream to 'drive' a space shuttle propels him toward a historic NASA mission
When a 10-year-old Victor Glover first saw the launch of a space shuttle on television, he was "totally captivated by the machine," he says. "I thought, 'Wow, I would love to drive that.'"
Fast forward 27 years to 2013. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Victor Glover, a test pilot with combat experience over Iraq, is far removed from aircraft carriers, fighter jets and boyhood dreams of traveling into space. He's on Capitol Hill on a temporary assignment as a legislative fellow for Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.
That's when he got the call.
Actually, he missed that first call. But after frantically dialing back, he eventually reached Janet Kavandi, then NASA's director for flight crew operations.
"She answers the phone and asks me, 'How would you feel about coming to Houston to start astronaut candidate training?'"
Glover had been passed over once before, in 2009. That time, despite his experience as a test pilot, engineer and flying the Navy's F/A-18 fighter jet, he "didn't make it very far," he says.
To say that NASA's selection
