Conversations That Matter: The many paths to outer space

How do you become an astronaut? It turns out there isn’t a straight line from here to outer space, but the good news is it doesn’t matter much where you start. What does matter is your desire to be exceptional at what you do — and what you do needs to be in line with the needs of the space program.
For example, let’s say you apply to study engineering at MIT — an education the average American couldn’t afford but thanks to a ROTC program, one ca