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I do a lot of running and hiking, and I also collect stamps - space stamps and Olympics stamps.
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I've spent my whole life not talking to people, and I don't see why I should start now.
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I've discovered that half the people would love to go into space and there's no need to explain it to them. The other half can't understand and I couldn't explain it to them. If someone doesn't know why, I can't explain it.
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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!
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Because I was a tennis player, Billie Jean King was a hero of mine.
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Yes, I did feel a special responsibility to be the first American woman in space.
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I don't have any nicknames.
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So most astronauts getting ready to lift off are excited and very anxious and worried about that explosion - because if something goes wrong in the first seconds of launch, there's not very much you can do.
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It's no secret that I've been reluctant to use my name for things.
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Rocket science is tough, and rockets have a way of failing.
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So I saw many planets, and they looked just a little bit brighter than they do from Earth.
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So I decided on science when I was in college.
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I did not come to NASA to make history.
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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.
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My background is in physics, so I was the mission specialist, who is sort of like the flight engineer on an airplane.
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I haven't written my memoirs or let the television movie be made about my life.
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There might be very primitive life in our solar system - single-cell animals, that sort of thing. We may know the answer to that in five or ten years. There is very likely to be life in other solar systems, in planets around other stars. But we won't know about that for a long time.
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We can see cities during the day and at night, and we can watch rivers dump sediment into the ocean, and see hurricanes form.
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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.
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No, I think most astronauts recognize that the space shuttle program is very high-risk, and are prepared for accidents.
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Different astronauts sleep in different ways.