I have been a bit of a risk-taker all my life.

I did not come to NASA to make history.

Suppose you came across a woman lying on the street with an elephant sitting on her chest. You notice she is short of breath. Shortness of breath can be a symptom of heart problems. In her case, the much more likely cause is the elephant on her chest. For a long time, society put obstacles in the way of women who wanted to enter the sciences. That is the elephant. Until the playing field has veen leveled and lingering stereotypes are gone, you can't even ask the question.

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

We can see cities during the day and at night, and we can watch rivers dump sediment into the ocean, and see hurricanes form.

I had both male and female heroes.

The view of Earth is spectacular.