Leroy Chiao at Literary Hub:
The next morning at 8 AM, everyone in the interview group gathered in a conference room. There were twenty of us. It was the late ’80s, and the group was still dominated by white male military pilots. I was the only Asian there.
One guy in my interview group was Rich Clifford. He was close to forty with prematurely white hair but still young-looking. Rich was already working for NASA (on loan from the Army) as an engineer on different parts of the Space Shuttle. His title was Space Shuttle Vehicle Integration Test Team engineer. He and I hit it off the day we first met, and he later became my best friend in our astronaut class.
We spent the day taking standardized tests, an IQ test, a psychological battery, cognitive tests on logic and memory—you name it. It took hours and hours. At the end of the day, we had a little social with the members of the committee who came out to meet us at the hotel. One of them was John Young, one of, if not THE greatest astronaut of all time.
More here.
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