How to Astronaut

An Insider's Guide to Leaving Planet Earth

By: Terry Virts

Narrated by: Terry Virts

Former NASA astronaut Terry Virts offers an insider's guide to astronauting—a behind-the-scenes look at the training, basic rules, lessons, and procedures of space travel, including how to deal with a dead body in space, what it’s like to film an IMAX movie in orbit, what exactly to do when nature calls, and much more!​

"There's something intriguing to be learned on practically every page ... [How to Astronaut] captures the details of an extraordinary job and turns even the mundane aspects of space travel into something fascinating."––Publishers Weekly

Ride shotgun on a trip to spacewith astronaut Terry Virts. A born storyteller with a gift for the surprising turn of phrase and eye for the perfect you-are-there details, he captures all the highs, lows, humor, and wonder of an experience few will ever know firsthand. Featuring stories covering survival training, space shuttle emergencies, bad bosses, the art of putting on a spacesuit, time travel, and much more!

Critic reviews

"There's something intriguing to be learned on practically every page… This book captures the details of an extraordinary job, and turns even the mundane aspects of space travel into something fascinating."
—Publishers Weekly

"How to Astronaut is an amusing and enlightening insight into an astronaut's work life.... This is an eye-opening insider's view on what it's really like to be an astronaut: the joys, the dangers, the fear, and the day-to-day reality of it. Virts' writing is humorous, playful, down to earth, and often wise."
—Booklist

"Virts' firsthand accounts are richly detailed and often snort-milk-out-of-your-nose hilarious."
—Discover

A listening experience

This was both interesting and informative. A great listen.
Thank you for your honesty and insight, Terry Virts.

Don't miss this book.

This is very entertaining and well written, gives an inside look to pilots and astronauts lives. Answers questions you didn't even think to ask. Really loved this book.

A fun book to hear

Although the reading was occasionally dry (see chapter one on appropriate radio voice), the story was great. He added the occasional funny story and insightful observations to the mix. I loved hearing about science, space travel, and exploring new places. Well worth your time.

Awesome book! Loved it.

Good sense of humor and
awesome information!
Defiantly a great listen.
I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in these kinds of things. It does not read like a manual which is nice.
Thank you for writing this book Terry,
I enjoyed it very much. :D

True to the title

This is a great account of the current job of astronaut. I have worked in Mission Control, Shuttle and Space Station Program offices, and recommend this book for anyone interested in wishing they had been or hope to hire-on as on astronaut.