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.
From Sally Ride
Yes, I did feel a special responsibility to be the first American woman in space.
The view of Earth is spectacular.
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!
When you're getting ready to launch into space, you're sitting on a big explosion waiting to happen.
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.
Because I was a tennis player, Billie Jean King was a hero of mine.
Science is fun. Science is curiosity. We all have natural curiosity. Science is a process of investigating. It's posing questions and coming up with a method. It's delving in.
I felt very honored, and I knew that people would be watching very closely, and I felt it was very, very important that I do a good job.
The stars don't look bigger, but they do look brighter.
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