AUBURN, Ala. – Long before experiencing weightlessness as a NASA astronaut, Jim Voss sought to weigh less as an Auburn wrestler.
Jim Voss advanced to the 1971
NCAA Wrestling Championships
From his offseason weight of 145 pounds, Voss trained and dieted his way to wrestling at 126 pounds as a senior, 8 pounds lighter than his previous wrestling weight of 134.
"I got down and it helped me," Voss remembered, nearly a half century later. "That's where I probably should have wrestled my whole career because I did well when I got to that weight."
Voss achieved his goal of reaching the 1971 NCAA Wrestling Championships, which Auburn hosted.
"I got there, which was my goal, but lost in the first round," he said. "After that I learned to set really high goals."
That lesson has served Voss well ever since, on land, in air and space.
He flew five Space Shuttle missions, orbiting Earth more than 550 times.
"Everything is different," he said. "The way you move around, your sensations, your views of everything. The way you even see things inside the compartment of a space shuttle is different because it could be upside down and look normal.
"It was just one of those life experiences that you never forget but you can't describe in just a few words. So many aspects of it are just overwhelming. Floating around is a wonderful thing to do, and there are a lot of different experiences with that even. The view out the window of the earth, continuously changing, and the beauty of the earth and seeing it from a different perspective. It's just a special experience."
After flying on Endeavour and twice on Atlantis and Discovery, Voss spent much of the spring and summer of 2001, 163 days, aboard the International Space Station.
During that mission, Voss and Susan Helms set a record for the longest spacewalk, 8 hours, 56 minutes.
"Spacewalks are the culmination of your career as an astronaut," he said. "It's one of the peaks that you get to do and it was very special to do it."
While many of the spacewalking sensations were otherworldly, two were relatable to everyone back on Earth: thirst and fatigue.
"You do get a little bit tired in a spacesuit," Voss said. "I think we had 16-ounce drink bags there and I drank that in the first couple hours so I was pretty thirsty by the time we were done.
"I was glad we got done and we finished everything we needed to get done, but I was pretty tired by the end of the day. We had to wait on them to move a module while we were there so we had a chance to hang around and look at the earth from an even different perspective."
Flying to outer space seemed unlikely when Jim Voss enrolled at Auburn University in the late 1960s, before the first lunar landing. In high school, Jim lived with his grandparents in Opelika.
"Auburn was just a natural choice for me," he said. "I had always wanted to go to Auburn, and had my heart set on it, so I didn't even consider anyplace else."
Voss attended Auburn on an Army ROTC scholarship, wrestling all four years for Auburn legend Swede Umbach while studying aerospace engineering in the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering.
"You have to be very determined, and you've got to be hard-working to be successful at the college level in any sport," Voss said. "Coach Umbach inspired us to work hard. He even would come in and lift weights with us. And he must have been in his mid-to-late 60s or maybe early 70s. He was getting up there and he still would come in and work out, and generally he would work out harder than most of us. He was very good at what he did. I picked up a lot of good life lessons in the wrestling room and on the mat."
At Auburn, Jim met his wife, Suzan, who earned her degree in mathematics before launching her own NASA career.
When Jim retired as an astronaut in 2003, he returned to Auburn as associate dean of engineering for external affairs.
The Vosses live in Houston, where Suzan, who went on earn an MBA and PhD in engineering, still works for NASA. Twice a month, Jim flies to the University of Colorado, where he earned his master's, to teach aerospace engineering.
Auburn graduates Jim and Suzan Voss celebrate a football victory at Toomer's Corner.
When Suzan returns to Auburn for board meetings for the College of Science and Mathematics, Jim accompanies her when his schedule allows.
Being on campus brings back memories for Jim Voss, whose Auburn athletic career began when he saw the wrestling team practice while doing calisthenics in a P.E. class his freshman year in a Quonset hut converted into a fieldhouse.
"The overall experiences that I had at Auburn, that included my athletic experience, are what helped form me and helped make me the person that I was who ultimately others saw as a good formation and made me a good person and a good candidate to become an astronaut," he said.
"I'm very proud that I can represent Auburn as one of the Auburn astronauts. That very important time of your life while you're going to college and you're developing in so many different ways is what made me what I was and I'm convinced helped me get to where I eventually got to be, and that is flying and living in space."
Jim Voss, bottom right, 'picked up a lot of good life lessons' wrestling for Auburn coach Swede Umbach.
Jeff Shearer is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on Twitter: @jeff_shearer