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

I love the John Glenn model... I may call NASA in 25 years or so, and see if they'd like to send me to Mars.

Different astronauts sleep in different ways.

The most important steps that I followed were studying math and science in school. I was always interested in physics and astronomy and chemistry and I continued to study those subjects through high school and college on into graduate school. That's what prepared me for being an astronaut; it actually gave me the qualifications to be selected to be an astronaut.

I think it's important for little girls growing up, and young women, to have one in every walk of life. So from that point of view, I'm proud to be a role model!

I had both male and female heroes.

The fact that I was going to be the first American woman to go into space carried huge expectations along with it.