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

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

For whatever reason, I didn't succumb to the stereotype that science wasn't for girls. I got encouragement from my parents. I never ran into a teacher or a counselor who told me that science was for boys. A lot of my friends did.

I was always very interested in science, and I knew that for me, science was a better long-term career than tennis.

On both of my flights, everything went very well.

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

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.