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.

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

We need to make science cool again.

Eventually private enterprise will be able to send people into orbit, but I suspect initially it's going to have to be with NASA's help. Whether it's going to be a consortium or one entity remains to be seen. I could be wrong. I could be one of the old fogies! Rocket science is tough, and rockets have a way of failing. It happens. A company has to be willing to bear the risk of its rocket failing. It's a very large capital investment.

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

I had both male and female heroes.

It takes a couple of years just to get the background and knowledge that you need before you can go into detailed training for your mission.