Reclining in a blue spacesuit covered with NASA mission patches, Polk County High School graduate Roger Crouch gets wide-eyed when he remembers hurtling through space.
"A lot of times you sit down and say, 'Holy cow, I went around the world in 90 minutes, 16 times a day,'" he said. "What a lucky guy I am."
The retired astronaut is colorblind, and after each military branch rejected Dr. Crouch as a fighter pilot, he entered the space program and became a payload specialist. That position "didn't require perfect vision," he said, and he handled gravity research on two Columbia missions in 1997.
Dr. Crouch, 59, traveled to Chattanooga on Tuesday to host the latest Imax 3D Theater movie premiere, "Hubble 3D." Though he never worked directly with the massive space telescope, Dr. Crouch knew plenty about blasting into uncharted territory with enhanced gravity.
"It flattens your lungs out to where trying to breathe in is like trying to blow a balloon up if somebody's got their foot rested on it," he said.
Dr. Crouch said he'll never forget the final moments before clearing the earth's atmosphere.
"It sounds like being in a metal building with a tin roof during a pretty bad hailstorm," he said. "A lot of popping and cracking and noise like that. It overwhelms all your senses."
But then, Dr. Crouch said, a sea change happens on the rising shuttle.
Personal glance* Name: Roger Crouch* Age: 59* Education: Polk County High School graduate, bachelor's degree from Tennessee Tech, doctorate from Virginia Tech* Space flight: Two 1997 missions aboard Columbia* Residence: Lives in Washington, D.C., with wife, AnneSource: NASA
"The main engine's shut off, the cushion in the seat pushes you forward a little bit, you come up against the harness," he said. "Then you unbuckle your seat belt and just float up. It's wonderful."
Dr. Crouch said he likes to tell young people to "keep trying and trying and trying." If a smart kid from Tennessee can fly around the earth with NASA, he said, anybody can.
"You have to take responsibility for where you are and not where you came from," he said.
Dr. Crouch said he knew some people doubted the space program's relevance. But he pointed to recent temperature research from a Hubble project that allows medical instruments to detect breast cancer early.
"There's enough creative, smart people here that can figure out how to use NASA stuff," he said. "They can, and they can make a buck. It makes a big difference in all of our lives."