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.
Sally RideWhen you can feel that close to something you're used to seeing from this great distance, well, it changes a person.
Sally RideIt's easy to sleep floating around - it's very comfortable. But you have to be careful that you don't float into somebody or something!
Sally RideStudying whether there's life on Mars or studying how the universe began, there's something magical about pushing back the frontiers of knowledge. That's something that is almost part of being human, and I'm certain that will continue.
Sally RideSo I saw many planets, and they looked just a little bit brighter than they do from Earth.
Sally Ride