As a kid, Ken Johnson remembers when his younger brother had trouble traveling down the highway to California from the seat of the family’s 1957 Chevrolet station wagon.

“He would get car sick,” the Auburn man recalled. “And yet, when he went up there, they say he travelled 5.3 million miles over a 13-day mission.”

That would be in space, courtesy of NASA.

Gregory C. Johnson, 54, recently came home after piloting the final shuttle mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope. And his older brother, couldn’t be prouder.

“It was pretty cool,” said Ken Johnson, 56, who lives and works in Auburn. “I haven’t called him yet, but I plan to do so.”

The Johnsons grew up in West Seattle, but each went their separate ways. For Greg Johnson, it was college, service and eventually, NASA. For Ken Johnson, it was raising and supporting his family in Auburn.

The astronaut was a former captain in the U.S. Navy who spent his military career in the Navy Reserve. He eventually took flight, becoming a test pilot who entered the astronaut program. He waited long but finally got the call to pilot Space Shuttle mission STS-125, the fifth and final Hubble servicing mission.

Space Shuttle Atlantis and its seven-person crew launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on May 11, and returned May 24, landing at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.

Ken Johnson was invited to attend the launch but decided to stay home.

A delivery truck driver for Auburn Dairy, Johnson quickly went about his regular route, then joined a friend to watch the launch from his big-screen TV.

He watched in anticipation on TV as the shuttle safely touched down in the California desert nearly 13 days later.

During the mission, the brothers were linked by a special e-mail account.

“I sent him a couple of messages and I got one back,” Ken Johnson said. “He also got to call our father (Raleigh).”

What was his brother’s reply from space?

“He kept it short, but he answered back that it was pretty neat being weightless,” Ken Johnson said. “I printed (the e-mail response) out and I plan to save it.”

Apart by distance and professions, the brothers soon hope to reunite. No doubt, they will have plenty to talk about.