Sally Ride

Different astronauts sleep in different ways.

There are aspects of being the first woman in space that I'm not going to enjoy.

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!

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.

So most astronauts are astronauts for a couple of years before they are assigned to a flight.

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 didn't really decide that I wanted to be an astronaut for sure until the end of college.

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.

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.

It's no secret that I've been reluctant to use my name for things.

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.

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.