My father, who flew combat missions for the Navy in Vietnam and then became a test pilot, told me after the loss of Columbia that if he had had a chance to make that flight and spend 7 days in Earth orbit, even knowing that he'd burn up on reentry, he'd have done it.

▲ rvnx 13 hours ago | parent | next [-]

One way to see it:

  1) Eventually you will die, no matter what. It can be the most mundane thing. Slipping on a ketchup splatter can cause great damage for example.

  2) It's a profession where you intentionally kill people, so, that changes the calculation for your own risk.

  3) It's a unique opportunity.

(and potentially)

  4) Gives a sense of living / be in history books for his family.

So you have a possibility of a guaranteed exciting life for a death that you anyway will have, but doing something you love, it's not too bad.

	▲	pdonis 25 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		> It's a profession where you intentionally kill people Not being an astronaut (or being a test pilot, for that matter). That's the context in which he was speaking.

▲ WalterBright 13 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Your father is a better man than I am.