LEWISTON — One characteristic links all astronauts who have served as a pilot or the commander of a space shuttle flight, former NASA astronaut Rick Hauck said.

Swagger, chutzpah or simply, the right stuff.

“What does every pilot have? An ego,” Hauck said. “No one wants to be called co-pilot. No one at NASA who has ever flown in space has ever been called a co-pilot.”

That certainly describes Hauck, who flew 114 combat and combat-support missions for the Navy during the Vietnam War and served as a test pilot before NASA came calling in 1978. He was the first person from his astronaut class to pilot a space shuttle mission. He also served as the commander for two more missions, including the first space shuttle flight following the Challenger explosion that killed seven astronauts.

More than 100 people came to the University of Maine’s Lewiston-Auburn College on Friday to listen to Hauck speak about the history of the space program and its future during the season’s final Food for Thought program sponsored by Lewiston-Auburn Senior College.

Hauck, who moved to Falmouth several years ago and serves on the board of directors for Cianbro, peppered his presentation with photographs, including several that he took from space. His favorite was one looking back at the Andes Mountains in South America and seeing the Andes in profile.

He even showed a photo of Portland from space with the runways at the Portland Jetport clearly visible.

Looking at the history of the space program, Hauck discussed how the United States fell behind the Russians following the launch of Sputnik in the late 1950s and how President John Kennedy challenged the country in 1961 “to achieve a goal before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to earth.”

“Think of that, we hadn’t even put a man in orbit yet,” Hauck said.

Hauck was one of 15 pilots selected by NASA in 1978 — the first new astronaut class since 1969 — to fly the space shuttle. His first mission was the seventh space shuttle flight, STS-7, which was also the first flight for Sally Ride, the first American woman in space.

Hauck is most proud of his second flight, STS-51A, when his crew made the first space salvage mission by capturing a pair of communications satellites worth over $200 million. The two satellites were brought back to earth, repaired and returned to space.

Following the Challenger accident, NASA chose Hauck to serve as the commander for the first post-Challenger flight. The four-man mission was the first NASA crew without a rookie astronaut since Apollo 11.

He touched upon the future of space flight, saying he was happy to hear earlier this week that NASA is still planning on a manned launch to Mars by the mid-2030s.

On the topic of space tourism, he noted that 350 people have already paid $250,000 apiece to reserve space on a reusable spaceship being prepared by Richard Branson.

“People want to be called astronauts,” Hauck said. “Everyone would like to be called an astronaut, I guess. If you go up above 60 miles, somebody will probably call you an astronaut.”

He paused, smiled, then added, “I wouldn’t.”

Someone in audience asked if any astronaut had  seen any evidence of extraterrestrial life.

Hauck said not to his knowledge, but didn’t preclude the possibility that some type of life could exist in the universe.

“The universe is so big and we’re such a tiny speck that there has to have been at some time, is now or will be, some other living organisms somewhere.

“But that’s a long ways from saying green-eyed men will be tapping you on the shoulder when you pull up to the gas pump,” he said.