It takes a couple of years just to get the background and knowledge that you need before you can go into detailed training for your mission.
I would like to be remembered as someone who was not afraid to do what she wanted to do, and as someone who took risks along the way in order to achieve her goals.
All adventures, especially into new territory, are scary.
Three Secrets to Success: Be willing to learn new things. Be able to assimilate new information quickly. Be able to get along with and work with other people.
I think it’s important for little girls growing up, and young women, to have one in every walk of life. So from that point of view, I’m proud to be a role model!
The view of earth is absolutely spectacular, and the feeling of looking back and seeing your planet as a planet is just an amazing feeling. It’s a totally different perspective, and it makes you appreciate, actually, how fragile our existence is.
I suggest taking the high road and have a little sence of humour and let things roll off your back. I think that’s very important.
The best advice I can give anybody is to try to understand who you are and what you want to do, and don’t be afraid to go down that road and do whatever it takes and work as hard as you have to work to achieve that.
When you can feel that close to something you’re used to seeing from this great distance, well, it changes a person.
For whatever reason, I didn’t succumb to the stereotype that science wasn’t for girls. I got encouragement from my parents. I never ran into a teacher or a counselor who told me that science was for boys. A lot of my friends did.
Our future lies with today’s kids and tomorrow’s space exploration.
The thing I’ll remember most about the flight is that it was fun. In fact, I’m sure it was the most fun that I’ll ever have in my life.
When you’re getting ready to launch into space, you’re sitting on a big explosion waiting to happen.
Studying whether there’s life on Mars or studying how the universe began, there’s something magical about pushing back the frontiers of knowledge. That’s something that is almost part of being human, and I’m certain that will continue.
I have a lot of common sense. I know what needs to be done and how to approach it. I have an ability to work with people on large enterprises.
It was a real honor for me to get to be the first woman astronaut. I think it’s really important that young girls that are growing up today can see that women can be astronauts too. There have actually been a lot of women, who are astronauts, that that’s a career that’s open to them.
I’ve spent my whole life not talking to people, and I don’t see why I should start now.
You can picture pretty easily if there were a paying passenger aboard a rocket that failed, like Challenger failed. Certainly it would be a tragedy, and a tragedy for the company. They would have a hard time recovering from it.
One thing I probably share with everyone else in the astronaut office is composure.
So I decided on science when I was in college.