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

The pressure suit helps if something goes wrong during launch or re-entry - astronauts have a way to parachute off the shuttle. The suits protect you from loss of pressure in case of emergency.

It's well known that many girls have a tendency to dumb down when they're in middle school.

There's a huge amount of pressure on every astronaut, because when you get right down to it, the experiments that are conducted on a space flight, or the satellites that are carried up, the work that's to be done, is important and expensive work, and you are up there for a week or two on a Space Shuttle flight. The country has invested a lot of money in you and your training, and the Space Shuttle and everything that's in it, and you have to do things correctly. You can't make a mistake during that week or two that you're in space.

No, I think most astronauts recognize that the space shuttle program is very high-risk, and are prepared for accidents.

I slept just floating in the middle of the flight deck, the upper deck of the space shuttle.

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