herrington's father was a flight instructor. his son's interest in aviation by taking him flying. >> early on, my brothers and i would sit in the back and we'd fly to oklahoma. and later on my dad bought a little cessna 150, and we used to fly. he would say, here, fly, and i'd fly. he'd lean over me and take pictures out the window. john: he graduated from college in 1983 and went to the navy's aviation officer candidate school. in 1985, he was commissioned as a naval aviator. over the next 10 years, he had a variety of assignments in the navy, logging more than 3800 hours flying more than 30 types of aircraft. in 1996, a childhood dream came true. nasa selected him from 2500 applicants for one of the 35 slots in the new class of astronaut candidates. >> this view of john harrington working in the vicinity. john: he went to spacas a mission specialist on the space shuttle endeavor as it delivered a new crew to the international space station. during the 13-day mission, herrington completed three space walks. his nasa career went