The astronauts also answered less technical, but equally fascinating, questions about their experiences in space.

According to Hawley, an astronaut can eat as if underwater.

"You can take your food and float it right in front of you and you can float up and eat it like a fish," Hawley said.

However, Hawley said the astronauts generally squeeze their food from tubes.

Mission Specialist Catherine G. "Cady" Coleman commented that living in a spacecraft isn't different from living at home, with one major exception.

"It's like being in your living room, except everything floats around, including you," Coleman said.

The astronauts also discussed how the human body adapts from earth to a zero gravity environment.

Hawley said that as the space shuttle struggles to overcome the earth's gravity, the body pumps more blood into the upper half of the body than usual in order to prevent it from pooling in the lower half.

Hawley said that once the shuttle reaches zero gravity, the body "is still preferentially pumping fluid" into the upper half of the body.

The effect lasts for a couple of days, and feels like hanging upside-down.

"You're not terribly efficient for the first several days," Hawley said.

Because of this adaption process, normally deployments do not occur until the third day of a mission, Collins said.

However, the STS-93 crew will launch AXAF on day one of their mission.

Therefore, the crew must "practice over and over again [so that] on the real day it will be a lot easier [and]...we can put aside the adaption and focus on mission," Collins said.

At the end of the presentation, Hawley warned would-be astronauts of NASA's difficult selection process, but encouraged others to pursue their dreams.

"When I applied [to be an astronaut] I was smart enough to know that the chances of me being accepted were the same if I applied or didn't," Hawley said.

"[But] I didn't want to live with the wonder, 'Could I have done this if I had tried?'"