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

It's easy to sleep floating around - it's very comfortable. But you have to be careful that you don't float into somebody or something!

Ever been to Disneyland? That was definitely an E ticket!

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.

So most astronauts getting ready to lift off are excited and very anxious and worried about that explosion - because if something goes wrong in the first seconds of launch, there's not very much you can do.

Our future lies with today's kids and tomorrow's space exploration.

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.