When you can feel that close to something you're used to seeing from this great distance, well, it changes a person.

The view of earth is spectacular from space. Most people imagine that when astronauts look out the window of the shuttle they see the whole earth like that big blue marble that was made famous by the flights that went to the moon. But the shuttle is much, much closer than those astronauts were. So we don't see the whole planet, the whole ball at once, we just see parts of it.

The food isn't too bad. It's very different from the food that the astronauts ate in the very early days of the space program.

All adventures, especially into new territory, are scary.

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.

My parents must have done a great job. Anytime I wanted to pursue something that they weren't familiar with, that was not part of their lifestyle, they let me go ahead and do it.

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.