The rockets light! The shuttle leaps off the launch pad in a cloud of steam and a trail of fire.

For a long time, society put obstacles in the way of women who wanted to enter the sciences.

Our future lies with today's kids and tomorrow's space exploration.

I felt very honored, and I knew that people would be watching very closely, and I felt it was very, very important that I do a good job.

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!

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.

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.