David Coates doesn't stay idle for long.
"What am I going to do, lay in that bed and watch TV all day?" Coates said. "You've got to do something to kill time."
Coates has made so many model airplanes from scratch that he's lost count.
"Well, we've got what, 30 here? Hundreds?" Coates said.
His love for crafting planes took off when he was 12 years old. He won third place in a national plane model-building competition, which launched a friendship and career.
"My friend Ken Mattingly. He had a model jet that we used to fly. He flew it at the competition. We didn't win anything, but we got it off the ground," Coates said.
Did Coates think Mattingly would become an astronaut?
"Not back then," Coates said, laughing. "We didn't know a thing about it."
Both of their childhood dreams come true. Coates and Mattingly landed jobs at a place that changed the course of their lives forever.
"Well, I'll be taking a small pay cut going to work for NASA. But I'll make it up soon," Coates said, laughing.
He worked at NASA from 1963 to 1993, during which time his models inspired missions for mankind. He unknowingly helped put the first men on the moon.
"In the beginning, we weren't looking that far ahead. We were just doing our job, you know," Coates said. "It was other people thinking that far ahead."
His missions are a little more grounded now.
His granddaughter Valerie and great-granddaughter Victoria are fascinated by grandpa's fortitude.
"I think he'll live until he's 100. He'll outlive everybody," Valerie said.
Coates' craftsmanship is now the glue that holds together a family spanning three generations.
His models propel him towards the relationships that are most dear.