An Astronaut Talks About Life on the Space Shuttle

A Long Island kid who loved Charlie Brown and the New York Mets would one day repair the Hubble Space Telescope.

The audience had showed up for a lecture about spaceflight. What they got sometimes felt like a stand-up routine. With a self-deprecating wit and perfect comedic timing, former NASA astronaut Mike Massimino wowed the sold-out crowd at the National Air and Space Museum’s John H. Glenn Lecture in Space History in September 2025. Massimino shared stories about flying on NASA’s space shuttle as a mission specialist, and he described his role in two critical Hubble Space Telescope servicing missions. Behind his charming public persona, Massimino is the typical astronaut overachiever. In addition to a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he has two M.S. degrees. He also believed in himself even when NASA didn’t: It took him four tries to get accepted into the agency’s astronaut-candidate program. Massimino is now a professor at Columbia University in New York City, where he teaches mechanical engineering. A New York Times best-selling author, he educates the public about the value of space exploration through speaking events and appearances on podcasts and television news shows. Massimino is a proud Peanuts superfan. “I have everything Snoopy,” he says. “I’ve got Snoopy on my refrigerator. I’ve got Snoopy shirts, socks, hats, pajamas, and blankets. And I wear a Charlie Brown watch.” Massimino recently spoke with Air & Space Quarterly senior editor Diane Tedeschi.

We hear so much about how intensely astronauts train for a space mission. When you finally get into orbit, does the work feel the same as the training? Or is there a noticeable divergence between the two? 

No, you’re pretty well-trained. I certainly felt like I was, and I think that every astronaut does. On my very first spacewalk, we had to replace one of the reaction wheels on the Hubble Space Telescope. This was my first time seeing Hubble, but I felt totally prepared to do my job because I had probably executed this task about a hundred times in training—whether it was on a virtual reality simulator or in our training pool. Nothing can really prepare you, though, for the overwhelming beauty that you see—the emotion of it. When you see the beauty of Earth and the stars and the Moon and everything around you, it’s so inspiring. But as far as your job goes, you’re 100-percent ready.

Do you feel fatigue in space? Because you don’t have gravity weighing you down the way you do on Earth.

During a spacewalk, you definitely feel fatigued, because you’re moving around almost the whole time. And you’re moving inside a bulky, pressurized suit, which is physically tiring. This is why astronauts get into great physical shape before launching on any missions that require spacewalks. Extravehicular activity can be mentally draining as well, because you’re concentrating so intently on the task. We always tried not to leave anything too demanding for the end of a spacewalk, when you’re mentally and physically tired and more prone to make a mistake.

Tell me about the quality of sleep during your space shuttle missions.

I slept pretty well. I did take a sleep medication. I don’t do that on Earth, but I knew I wanted to get my rest, and I knew I was going to be excited during my first trip to space. The first couple nights, I took a sleep medicine, but after that, it wasn’t needed. Sleeping in space is really peaceful. You’re inside of a sleeping bag that’s attached to a wall so you’re not floating off. But you are floating inside the sleeping bag, and it’s very relaxing. You typically wear a sleep mask and earplugs because the shuttle has some equipment that runs nonstop, and you’ll hear the hum of those fans. Other than that, it’s a very comfortable way to sleep.

When you’re in orbit, does food taste the same as it does on Earth?

I gained weight on my space shuttle flights, which is very unusual. I liked the food, but you experience it differently. Not that the food is any different or your taste buds are any different, but typically in space you’re a little congested. On Earth, gravity keeps the fluid in our body distributed in a certain way. When there’s no gravity, the fluid tends to shift to the upper extremity, and you get a bit of fullness in your head, a bit of stuffiness. Your sense of smell and taste is not as keen as it is on Earth, which is why many astronauts favor spicy food in orbit. For example, shrimp cocktail was a very popular item on the menu because the cocktail sauce has horseradish, which is a strong flavor, and it can help clear your sinuses. 

What were your favorite foods and beverages in space?

In addition to the shrimp cocktail, I liked the macaroni and cheese. I liked a bunch of stuff. I liked the ravioli and the lasagna. Those were probably my favorites. For my favorite drink—I wasn’t drinking any caffeine back then, so I didn’t have coffee. But the shuttle was stocked with lots of drinks that had two names, like strawberry lemonade or cherry orange—those were my favorites. When someone offered to get me a drink, I’d always say: “Anything with two names.” 

That’s interesting that you weren’t consuming caffeine, because during NASA’s Skylab missions, coffee was a daily routine.

That’s why I avoided it. As a new astronaut, I remember Bob Cabana, the chief of the astronaut office, reminding us: “Make sure you order your coffee. Either become caffeine-free or make sure you request enough coffee because you don’t want to get a caffeine-withdrawal headache in space.” And I was thinking: “I don’t need it. I’m not doing this.” I went caffeine-free for just about all my years as an astronaut because many times, we’d be training somewhere out in the field and, again, I didn’t want the hassle. Now I live in New York City, and I’m drinking coffee all the time, but back then, I didn’t want to be dependent on it.

When you’re in orbit, do you have the same feeling of fullness after eating that you do on Earth?

Your gut doesn’t work the same in space because gravity helps you with digestion. So we sometimes took a fiber supplement or ate a lot of dried fruit.

Does personal hygiene get compromised when you’re in orbit?

No, hygiene is important. You try to clean yourself as best you can, but you’re not really taking a shower, right? You would certainly shave and brush your teeth every day. It wasn’t like when you’re out in the field. Sometimes we’d be training outdoors next to a canyon or kayaking for hours. In those situations, I wouldn’t shave. But on the shuttle, we all did the best we could—kind of like a sponge bath. You have a washcloth and you can put water on it and soap yourself up. And you had dry shampoo for your hair. Even so, it was always interesting to see the reaction of the close-out crew, who would open the shuttle hatch after we landed. The looks on their faces suggested they were being greeted by a strong odor.

I’ve heard that space has a distinctive smell. Is that something you experienced during your two space shuttle missions?

If you could stick your head outside the spaceship and open your visor and take a whiff—you can’t do this of course—what would space smell like? I remember as a new astronaut, I was listening to Sergei Krikalev, a Russian cosmonaut who flew twice on the space shuttle. He didn’t go outside for the spacewalks on the first assembly mission for the space station via the shuttle. But in the mission debrief, he mentioned smelling an odor in the airlock of the shuttle after it had been used for a spacewalk; he said it was the same odor he had smelled after a spacewalk on the Mir space station inside its airlock. And I was like, “Whoa, what’s that supposed to be?” I went and asked Sergei about it, and he said the smell was kind of like burnt metal. Sure enough, I noticed a similar odor inside the shuttle’s airlock after coming in from a spacewalk—a distinctly metallic smell.

On your first space shuttle flight, you were experiencing some strong vibrations inside the orbiter during the launch, and you were worried that something might be wrong.

Well, I think certainly the first time you launch on a spaceship like that, it can be a little overwhelming. Even for astronauts with military backgrounds: They’ve done some exciting things and scary things, but looking at a spaceship you’re about to step onto, I think that can be a little intimidating. One thing I learned, though, was that being scared is not a good thing because it can sometimes cloud your judgment. I remember thinking from time to time: “Oh, I should be scared here, but it’s not going to help me execute the mission.” But, yes, certainly some situations were intense. For me, the worst moment was looking at the spaceship before I got on it. There’s the water vapor that makes it look like it’s smoking, and it’s making these horrible noises, and it looks like it’s alive. At that moment, I said to myself, “Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea.” But you trust in your equipment and in your training and in your team, and once you get inside, you realize everything is fine.

I’ve saved the best for last. During your lecture, you showed the audience a photo of you as a young child holding a Snoopy toy and dressed in an astronaut outfit that had been recycled from an elephant Halloween costume. What is the enduring appeal of Snoopy?

I’m at my apartment, and I’ve got Snoopy everywhere. I’ve got a little Snoopy and Charlie Brown. As soon as you walk in the door, you get to see them. I have a Snoopy nightlight that one of my kids got for me for Christmas.

Three things happened to me when I was a kid in 1969. I was six going on seven when the Apollo 11 Moon landing occurred in July. Then the New York Mets won the World Series in October. And I went to see A Boy Named Charlie Brown at Radio City Music Hall, a film based on the Peanuts comic strip by Charles Schulz. And those three things never left me. I’m a huge baseball fan. Growing up, I watched almost every Mets game. I love Charlie Brown and Snoopy. I took Snoopy to space with me. The same toy that you saw in the photo, I brought him along on my first space shuttle flight. I never got to meet Charles Schulz, unfortunately. He died in 2000, but I’ve gotten to know his wife a little bit. A few years ago, my wife and I were handlers for the Snoopy balloon in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

These were all things in my life that to me seemed to be good—a perfect good. When I saw Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walk on the Moon—what they were doing was absolutely a perfect good. This was something important. They were the kind of people I wanted to grow up to be. The space program was the pursuit of knowledge, and it was exploration. It was doing things for the country and for the world and for science. 

Baseball was this game that I shared with my dad, who was an inspector for the New York City Fire Department. I also shared baseball with my kids. I shared it with my Uncle Romeo, who’s 103 years old. For a second time, he’s going to be Veteran of the Game for the Mets.

And then Charlie Brown. I love the way Charles Schulz saw the world. Baseball, space travel, and hanging out with your friends were such popular and frequent themes in his comic strips. This is what I thought the world was supposed to be like. The space program, baseball, Charlie Brown and Snoopy—to me, these things represent all that’s good in the world.

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Diane Tedeschi is Air & Space Quarterly's senior editor.

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Learn more about Mike Massimino’s career as a space shuttle astronaut by watching a lecture he gave in September 2025 at the National Air and Space Museum.

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This article, originally titled "Snoopy, Baseball, and NASA," is from the Summer 2026 issue of Air & Space Quarterly, the National Air and Space Museum's signature magazine that explores topics in aviation and space, from the earliest moments of flight to today. Explore the full issue.

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Diane Tedeschi | Read More

Diane Tedeschi is a senior editor at Air & Space Quarterly.