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!

I didn't really decide that I wanted to be an astronaut for sure until the end of college.

I've spent my whole life not talking to people, and I don't see why I should start now.

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!

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.

Different astronauts sleep in different ways.

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.