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

Three Secrets to Success: Be willing to learn new things. Be able to assimilate new information quickly. Be able to get along with and work with other people.

It takes a few years to prepare for a space mission.

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.

Then during the mission itself, I used the space shuttle's robot arm to release a satellite into orbit.

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

If they asked me if I wanted to go into space tomorrow, I'd do it in a heartbeat. On the other hand, if they asked me if I wanted to go into training for three years and then go into space again, I'd probably say no.