It’s probably been said before, but it’s true: Story Musgrave is aptly named.

At least five careers, five space shuttle trips, seven graduate degrees, a love of nature and his curiosity give him lots of stories to share with an audience.

On Wednesday he shared some of his story and philosophy while helping United Way of Central Florida kick off its fundraising campaign.

Musgrave, 76, said, “I am on a voyage; I’m on a quest. It’s the journey that matters.”

He praised the United Way for trying to provide opportunities for those who don’t have them. “The mission spirit of passion pushes you forward.”

The United Way will need that passion to achieve its campaign goal. Chairman Cindy Alexander said the organization “must raise more than $8.7 million to make a difference.”

In Polk County, 34 percent don’t have a high school degree, she said, and 24 percent won’t graduate from high school. A study of some 700 Boy Scouts showed a 9 percent higher score on FCAT reading and 7 percent in math.

“That’s pretty good,” Alexander declared, “but pretty good is not good enough for our community.”

Besides the major contributors, this year’s campaign got a boost of 11 percent from “pacesetter” companies.

Superintendent of Schools Sherrie Nickell told the crowd at Peace River Country Club that Polk County is “an amazingly supportive community, especially for those in need.”

She introduced Lori Bradner, a teacher at Central Florida Aerospace Academy in Kathleen High School, who was a finalist for the National STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) Teacher of the Year, was named the Air Force Association’s 2011 Florida Teacher of the Year and runner-up for the national AFA Teacher of the Year, and was selected as recipient of a 2011 NASA Excellence in Teaching Award.

“I’m just a teacher,” Bradner said modestly, thanking the United Way supporters “for everything you do.

“I’m in the trenches. I know that failure isn’t an option ... We have phenomenal teachers and even better students.”

Education is important to Musgrave who has graduate degrees in math, computers, chemistry, medicine, physiology, literature and psychology, plus 20 honorary doctorates. He’s takena long journey from the teenager who didn’t finish high school and ran off to Korea with the Marines. There he was an airplane mechanic who later started flying with the Marines.

After returning to the United States, he continued his formal education. Each subject and career has had bridges to other subjects that drew his interest.

As a 3-year-old growing up on a Massachusetts farm, Musgrave was at the “age of innocence and curiosity about the world ... You want to keep that in kids,” he said.

He explored the farm and forest, wandering for hours. “Mom had the courage to let me explore,” he said.

Raised with farm machinery, he later was the lead spacewalker on the Hubble telescope repair mission, spending months on Earth figuring out what was wrong and how to fix it. The telescope “had the world’s best mirror but it was the wrong one. Thirteen major systems were broken.” But with the “mission spirit” the astronaut team worked together with focus and concentration to fix it in a 1993 space shuttle mission.

Before that accomplishment, Musgrave spent a few years studying computers, going to medical school, learning about aeronautical engineering and physiology. When NASA decided to hire scientists for the astronaut program, Musgrave was ready. He was chosen for the program in 1967 and was an astronaut for 30 years, making six space flights. He took the first shuttle spacewalk on Challenger’s first flight.

It became his habit to visit the space ship the night before, then go swimming in the ocean to reconnect with Mother Earth.

Since his retirement in 1997 he has become a speaker, a landscape architect, a concept artist with Walt Disney Imagineering, among other things, and operates a palm farm in Kissimmee. He has seven children ranging in age from 5 to 50 years old.

“I’m not a risk taker,” he said, although looking at his life and accomplishments, one might think just the opposite. He studies a situation, makes a plan, and when “you’re happy with the plan, now execute it with perfection.”

Musgrave told United Way supporters to “Get it done, no matter the challenge.” He advised them to “do what you’re good at. Passion gives you energy to work on details ... Don’t work on your weaknesses, you just raise them to a mediocre level. Instead work on your strengths.”

The astronaut accompanied his inspirational and humorous talk with a PowerPoint presentation of awe-inspiring photographs of space and nature, many taken by Musgrave (who is also an artist). As the screen displayed a photo of Triple Crown winner Secretariat racing down the track, Musgrave told the audience, “You sign up for being that good. Every one of you, there’s no reason to sign up for less.”

He added, “We are on a cosmic journey, we have to look after ourselves.”

Whether to outer space or out in the world to help each other, “We go because it is there.”