The space shuttle is a better and safer rocket than it was before the Challenger accident.

One thing I probably share with everyone else in the astronaut office is composure.

Everywhere I go I meet girls and boys who want to be astronauts and explore space, or they love the ocean and want to be oceanographers, or they love animals and want to be zoologists, or they love designing things and want to be engineers. I want to see those same stars in their eyes in 10 years and know they are on their way!

For quite some time, women at NASA only had scientific backgrounds.

I liked math - that was my favorite subject - and I was very interested in astronomy and in physical science.

I would like to be remembered as someone who was not afraid to do what she wanted to do, and as someone who took risks along the way in order to achieve her goals.

I didn't really decide that I wanted to be an astronaut for sure until the end of college.