Well, we're headed to Cape Canaveral for the big launch that will take me to the International Space Station. Below are some more pre-prepared answers to questions from kids who attended Aerospace Camp last summer at Missouri S&T.

How long did you have to train to become an astronaut?
-- Robert (Team Sputnik)

MAGNUS: I went to college for 4 years, worked at McDonnell Douglas in St. Louis for 4.5 years and did my master's degree at night school. Then I went to graduate school for my doctorate for another 4.5 years. Once I got into the astronaut office, I did basic training for about 1.5 years. So there was a lot to do to get here, but it was all very interesting and I learned a lot. I am still learning a lot as I go through my space station training.

What kind of training do you have to do before going into space?
-- Alex (Team Spirit)

MAGNUS: For a shuttle mission, you train for about a year. During that time you concentrate on training for the exact tasks that you will be doing in orbit. For example, for my first flight I was the robotics officer so I did tons of training on robotics, but since I was not going to do a spacewalk, I did no training on that topic. For a space station mission, the training takes about three or so years and you have to train in many different countries (it is an International station!). We train on everything and generate a certain skill level, kind of like a "jack of all trades" type of skill set. We also spend time learning about the science experiments that we will be doing. Other general things we get trained on include photography, Earth science, first responder medical techniques, emergency situations that could happen on ISS (fire, depressurization, for example), Russian language, spacewalk and robotics techniques to name a few. There is always something new to learn.