When the space shuttle's engines cut off, and you're finally in space, in orbit, weightless... I remember unstrapping from my seat, floating over to the window, and that's when I got my first view of Earth. Just a spectacular view, and a chance to see our planet as a planet.
— Sally Ride
I have a lot of common sense. I know what needs to be done and how to approach it. I have an ability to work with people on large enterprises.
The experience of being in space didn't change my perspective of myself or of the planet or of life. I had no spiritual experience.
One thing I probably share with everyone else in the astronaut office is composure.
You know, I go around the country a lot.
For whatever reason, I didn't succumb to the stereotype that science wasn't for girls. I got encouragement from my parents. I never ran into a teacher or a counselor who told me that science was for boys. A lot of my friends did.
It's no secret that I've been reluctant to use my name for things.
The stars don't look bigger, but they do look brighter.
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.
Some astronauts sleep in sort of beds - compartments that you can open up and crawl into and then close up, almost like a little bedroom.
The most anxious time was during launch, just because that is so dramatic.
Well, we spend an awful lot of our time working and doing experiments. It's very busy up on the shuttle.
On a standard space shuttle crew, two of the astronauts have a test pilot background - the commander and the pilot.
It takes a couple of years just to get the background and knowledge that you need before you can go into detailed training for your mission.
The astronauts who came in with me in my astronaut class - my class had 29 men and 6 women - those men were all very used to working with women.
I do a lot of running and hiking, and I also collect stamps - space stamps and Olympics stamps.
I was always very interested in science, and I knew that for me, science was a better long-term career than tennis.
Studying 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.
Science is fun. Science is curiosity. We all have natural curiosity. Science is a process of investigating. It's posing questions and coming up with a method. It's delving in.
I did not come to NASA to make history.
Rocket science is tough, and rockets have a way of failing.
For a long time, society put obstacles in the way of women who wanted to enter the sciences.
The fact that I was going to be the first American woman to go into space carried huge expectations along with it.
There are aspects of being the first woman in space that I'm not going to enjoy.
We can see cities during the day and at night, and we can watch rivers dump sediment into the ocean, and see hurricanes form.
NASA has to approve whatever we wear, so there are clothes to choose from, like space shorts - we wear those a lot - and NASA T-shirts.
I slept just floating in the middle of the flight deck, the upper deck of the space shuttle.
On both of my flights, everything went very well.
Then during the mission itself, I used the space shuttle's robot arm to release a satellite into orbit.
The pressure suit helps if something goes wrong during launch or re-entry - astronauts have a way to parachute off the shuttle. The suits protect you from loss of pressure in case of emergency.
It takes a few years to prepare for a space mission.
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.
I don't have any nicknames.
I liked math - that was my favorite subject - and I was very interested in astronomy and in physical science.
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've spent my whole life not talking to people, and I don't see why I should start now.
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 think eventually private enterprise will be able to send people into orbit, but I suspect initially it's going to have to be with NASA's help.
It's well known that many girls have a tendency to dumb down when they're in middle school.
I haven't written my memoirs or let the television movie be made about my life.
So I saw many planets, and they looked just a little bit brighter than they do from Earth.
The view of Earth is spectacular.
It'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!
Different astronauts sleep in different ways.
But when I wasn't working, I was usually at a window looking down at Earth.
My background is in physics, so I was the mission specialist, who is sort of like the flight engineer on an airplane.
So most astronauts are astronauts for a couple of years before they are assigned to a flight.
For quite some time, women at NASA only had scientific backgrounds.
Yes, I did feel a special responsibility to be the first American woman in space.
So I decided on science when I was in college.
