The women's movement had already paved the way, I think, for my coming.
The space shuttle is a better and safer rocket than it was before the Challenger accident.
The experience of being in space didn't change my perspective of myself or of the planet or of life. I had no spiritual experience.
But even in elementary school and junior high, I was very interested in space and in the space program.
For quite some time, women at NASA only had scientific backgrounds.
I was always very interested in science, and I knew that for me, science was a better long-term career than tennis.
It's well known that many girls have a tendency to dumb down when they're in middle school.
It's easy to sleep floating around - it's very comfortable. But you have to be careful that you don't float into somebody or something!
NASA has to approve whatever we wear, so there are clothes to choose from, like space shorts - we wear those a lot - and NASA T-shirts.
My background is in physics, so I was the mission specialist, who is sort of like the flight engineer on an airplane.
I didn't really decide that I wanted to be an astronaut for sure until the end of college.
For a long time, society put obstacles in the way of women who wanted to enter the sciences.
I do a lot of running and hiking, and I also collect stamps - space stamps and Olympics stamps.
Different astronauts sleep in different ways.
I liked math - that was my favorite subject - and I was very interested in astronomy and in physical science.
No, I think most astronauts recognize that the space shuttle program is very high-risk, and are prepared for accidents.
I had both male and female heroes.
Because I was a tennis player, Billie Jean King was a hero of mine.
I don't have any nicknames.
Yes, I did feel a special responsibility to be the first American woman in space.
It takes a few years to prepare for a space mission.
So most astronauts are astronauts for a couple of years before they are assigned to a flight.
On a standard space shuttle crew, two of the astronauts have a test pilot background - the commander and the pilot.
Then during the mission itself, I used the space shuttle's robot arm to release a satellite into orbit.
