It Takes A Few Years

Rocket Science Is Tough, And Rockets Have A Way Of Failing.

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.

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.

You Can Picture Pretty Easily If There Were A Paying Passenger Aboard A Rocket That Failed, Like Challenger Failed. Certainly It Would Be A Tragedy, And A Tragedy For The Company. They Would Have A Hard Time Recovering From It.

My Background Is In Physics, So I Was The Mission Specialist, Who Is Sort Of Like The Flight Engineer On An Airplane.