Well, We Spend An Awful

Even Though Nasa Tries To Simulate Launch, And We Practice In Simulators, It's Not The Same - It's Not Even Close To The Same.

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.

There's A Huge Amount Of Pressure On Every Astronaut, Because When You Get Right Down To It, The Experiments That Are Conducted On A Space Flight, Or The Satellites That Are Carried Up, The Work That's To Be Done, Is Important And Expensive Work, And You Are Up There For A Week Or Two On A Space Shuttle Flight. The Country Has Invested A Lot Of Money In You And Your Training, And The Space Shuttle And Everything That's In It, And You Have To Do Things Correctly. You Can't Make A Mistake During That Week Or Two That You're In Space.

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.

I Slept Just Floating In The Middle Of The Flight Deck, The Upper Deck Of The Space Shuttle.