I slept just floating in the middle of the flight deck, the upper deck of the space shuttle.
Sally RideSo most astronauts getting ready to lift off are excited and very anxious and worried about that explosion - because if something goes wrong in the first seconds of launch, there's not very much you can do.
Sally RideWhen you can feel that close to something you're used to seeing from this great distance, well, it changes a person.
Sally RideI 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.
Sally RideThe view of earth is spectacular from space. Most people imagine that when astronauts look out the window of the shuttle they see the whole earth like that big blue marble that was made famous by the flights that went to the moon. But the shuttle is much, much closer than those astronauts were. So we don't see the whole planet, the whole ball at once, we just see parts of it.
Sally Ride