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

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.

The best advice I can give anybody is to try to understand who you are and what you want to do, and don't be afraid to go down that road and do whatever it takes and work as hard as you have to work to achieve that.

On a standard space shuttle crew, two of the astronauts have a test pilot background - the commander and the pilot.

Suppose you came across a woman lying on the street with an elephant sitting on her chest. You notice she is short of breath. Shortness of breath can be a symptom of heart problems. In her case, the much more likely cause is the elephant on her chest. For a long time, society put obstacles in the way of women who wanted to enter the sciences. That is the elephant. Until the playing field has veen leveled and lingering stereotypes are gone, you can't even ask the question.

That's something that is almost part of being human and I'm certain that will continue.

The pressure suit helps if something goes wrong during launch or re-entry - astronauts have a way to parachute off the shuttle. The suits protect you from loss of pressure in case of emergency.