We were on the dark side of the Earth when we started to see outside the window this soft pink glow, which is a lot of little angry ions out there going very fast. We were hitting them very fast.

You're going very fast when you're on orbit, going around the world once every hour and a half.

The nature of the shuttle was, we couldn't put a crew escape system in it.

Living inside the shuttle was a little like camping out. We ended up sleeping in our seats. You had to pay attention to housekeeping, not get things too dirty.

When you work really hard for something for a long time it's almost impossible to believe that it's coming true.

This vehicle is performing like a champ. I've got a super spaceship under me.

The space shuttle has been a fantastic vehicle. It is unlike any other thing that we've ever built. Its capabilities have carried several hundred people into space.