(The following post and podcast are not, in any way, affiliated with, nor endorsed by, NASA.)

"It's totally not practical to think you're going to grow up and be an astronaut," says U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Anne C. McClain. "I mean, who does that?"

But that was Anne's dream, from the time she went to preschool. And today, she is both a highly-decorated Army Aviator and one of eighteen NASA astronauts currently in training for the Artemis missions to the moon.

Anne was one of eight candidates selected for NASA's 21st astronaut class in June, 2013. So far. she has spent 204 days in space. Her most recent experiences included serving as Flight Engineer on the International Space Station during Expedition 58 and 59. During that time, she also spent more than 13 hours as lead space walker on two spacewalks.

We talked about Anne's background, daily life aboard the ISS and some of the considerations involved in spaceflight, as well as her work in selecting space suits for the upcoming Artemis Moon missions.