I find myself looking around for other new, interesting opportunities to dive into.

It was a real honor for me to get to be the first woman astronaut. I think it's really important that young girls that are growing up today can see that women can be astronauts too. There have actually been a lot of women, who are astronauts, that that's a career that's open to them.

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

Rocket science is tough, and rockets have a way of failing.

I think maybe it's too bad that our society isn't further along and this is such a big deal. I think it's time...that people realize that women in this country can do any job they want to do.

Even though NASA tries to simulate launch, and we practice in simulators, it's not the same - it's not even close to the same.

My background is in physics, so I was the mission specialist, who is sort of like the flight engineer on an airplane.