I Felt Very Honored, And

It Was A Real Honor For Me To Get To Be The First Woman Astronaut. I Think It's Really Important That Young Girls That Are Growing Up Today Can See That Women Can Be Astronauts Too. There Have Actually Been A Lot Of Women, Who Are Astronauts, That That's A Career That's Open To Them.

The Rockets Light! The Shuttle Leaps Off The Launch Pad In A Cloud Of Steam And A Trail Of Fire.

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.

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.

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.