CONTENTS UNDER PRESSURE: NASA NEWS SENDS SOME OF US INTO ORBIT

John Glenn goes back into orbit on Oct. 29.

From space walker to U.S. Senator and back into space, this time at 77.

I've long been fascinated by space exploration, and if NASA would have me, I'd sign up in a heartbeat.

Somehow I don't think they're looking for short, pudgy, nearsighted astronauts who can't tell a phasar from a quark.

I can tell G-forces from G-strings, but that's another column.

Not too long ago I got a chance to go for an airplane ride with a bunch of skydivers.

I was working, of course, but that's all right; we're allowed to have fun on the clock.

I spent several minutes watching the jumpers pack their parachutes, compare helmets and argue about the necessity of pads.

On the plane, the photographer and I strapped ourselves in and waited for takeoff and the jumpers waited with less than patience until we got high enough for them to make the jump.

One of the guys grinned at me as he got ready to jump. "Have fun on the ride back," he said, and stepped out into the sky.

I wondered what he meant for a minute, but mostly I wondered what it would be like to fall from 14,500 feet -- or higher -- until a scrap of nylon expanded enough to float you safely back to Earth.

I'm an Air Force brat, and until I watched that skydiver make his jump, I could have sworn nothing short of gunfire would make me jump off of a perfectly good airplane.

It's not the falling that scares me; it is, as one skydiver put it, that abrupt stop at the end.

But for a few seconds it seemed like a perfectly natural urge to launch myself into space and free-fall.

Then the last jumper exited and the plane swerved sharply and I learned the meaning of zero gravity, which has nothing to do with 32 feet per second (squared).

I understood what the jumper meant. And I've figured out why I'm not an astronaut. Not only don't I have the guts for it, I don't have the stomach, either.

But seeking the unknown takes heart as well as guts, and I'm surely not the only one who's stared up at the sky and wondered who was staring back.

Glenn's foray back into space will give scientists a chance to study how the effects of weightlessness compare with the effects of aging.

It turned cold the other night and I started grumbling about another winter. Then started worrying about getting old.

So I went for a walk and looked at the stars and shivered, not just because of the temperature.

I wonder if anyone has studied what effects exploration has on aging, and vice-versa?

It's a pretty good bet I won't make it into NASA's space exploration program (but they do have a Space Camp program for adults in Huntsville, Ala.,) and I may never jump out of a plane.

But some would argue that serial dating or being a liberal in Southeast Missouri is enough of an adventure for anyone.

In the meantime, it's time to start packing the 'chute.

Peggy O'Farrell is a staff writer for the Southeast Missourian.