Basically, all my life I'd been told you can't do that because you're female. So I guess I just didn't pay any attention. I just went ahead and did what I could and then, when the stars aligned, I was ready.

You think America is the biggest place on Earth, but it's not. [The view from Mir] put everything in perspective.

When I got my PhD, it was a time when there were just no jobs for PhDs. Period. PhDs were getting the lowest paid technician jobs, if they were lucky, in any kind of science.

You're in charge but don't touch the controls. Recounting what the two Russian cosmonauts tell her each time they leave the Mir space station for a spacewalk.

If you look at the whole thing, I think the most gratifying thing is my kids, without a doubt.

Basically, all my life I'd been told you can't do that because you're female. So I guess I just didn't pay any attention. I just went ahead and did what I could and then, when the stars aligned, I was ready.

I was really desperate. I don't know if you can remember back that far, but when I went to graduate school they didn't want females in graduate school. They were very open about it. They didn't mince their words. But then I got in and I got my degree.