When you're getting ready to launch into space, you're sitting on a big explosion waiting to happen.

I do a lot of running and hiking, and I also collect stamps - space stamps and Olympics stamps.

There are lots of opportunities out there for women to work in these fields, ... Girls just need support, encouragement and mentoring to follow through with the sciences.

We need to make science cool again.

It was hard to become an astronaut. Not anywhere near as much physical training as people imagine, but a lot of mental training, a lot of learning. You have to learn everything there is to know about the Space Shuttle and everything you are going to be doing, and everything you need to know if something goes wrong, and then once you have learned it all, you have to practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice until everything is second nature, so it's a very, very difficult training, and it takes years.

I slept just floating in the middle of the flight deck, the upper deck of the space shuttle.

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.