I think eventually private enterprise will be able to send people into orbit, but I suspect initially it's going to have to be with NASA's help.

Some astronauts sleep in sort of beds - compartments that you can open up and crawl into and then close up, almost like a little bedroom.

But when I wasn't working, I was usually at a window looking down at Earth.

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

So I saw many planets, and they looked just a little bit brighter than they do from Earth.

Because I was a tennis player, Billie Jean King was a hero of mine.

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.