Even as a former standout athlete — he was drafted by the Detroit Lions in the 1986 NFL Draft — with a masters in Materials Sciences, Leland Melvin never dreamed of becoming an astronaut until a colleague at NASA convinced him to enter the trials. Despite a debilitating ear injury sustained during training, Leland served among the first flight crews that led America back into space following the space shuttle Columbia disaster. He is now a NASA educator, helping to raise the profile of the U.S. space program in the post-shuttle era.
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