On both of my flights, everything went very well.
I slept just floating in the middle of the flight deck, the upper deck of the space shuttle.
So most astronauts are astronauts for a couple of years before they are assigned to a flight.
My background is in physics, so I was the mission specialist, who is sort of like the flight engineer on an airplane.
Once you are assigned to a flight, the whole crew is assigned at the same time, and then that crew trains together for a whole year to prepare for that flight.
