WASHINGTON — Staring intently at the dual screens inside a flight simulator this month at the University of Pittsburgh, President Obama tapped the controls in front of him, firing faux thrusters as he pretended to maneuver his space shuttle toward the International Space Station. Pulse up. Pulse to the right. Left. Down. Down. Left. Left.

“Uber shuttle,” the beaming president told reporters after a brief but successful docking mission, joking that the next market for Uber would be outer space. “In case anyone calls, we’ll be there in five minutes.”

For nearly eight years, the presidency has been Mr. Obama’s science and technology playground, a place where he sought to become the advocate in chief for industries pushing advanced batteries, powerful medical devices and cutting-edge research.

“I’m a nerd, and I don’t make any apologies for it,” Mr. Obama said after his faux shuttle flight. He added: “It’s cool stuff. And it is that thing that sets us apart, that ability to imagine and hypothesize, and then test and figure stuff out, and tinker and make things and make them better, and then break them down and rework them.”