Richard Dean Anderson

My back has been compressed and operated on, my feet have been surgically cut up, and I have a knee that's just going wacky. So I do my own driving, and I ski and skate. I'm playing hockey again. Anything that immobilizes my feet I'm OK with.

Ironically, it is only when disaster strikes that the shuttle makes the headlines. Its routine flights attracted less media interest than unmanned probes to the planets or the images from the Hubble Telescope. The fate of Columbia (like that of Challenger in 1986) reminded us that space is still a hazardous environment.

There's great stuff out there, but I prefer doing a TV show, going to work every day with the same people, and a lot of stuff is not being shot in Los Angeles and I don't really want to do that because my loved ones are here.