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A trip to space is a big motivator to give up some things in your personal life. Obviously, you can't give up everything and you don't want to.

Spacewalking trumps everything. Viscerally, it is a phenomenal place to be; to be able to glance right and see the world, glance left and see the universe, and realise for a moment that you're holding on to your known existence with one hand. That's the thing.

It's a really big deal to do a spacewalk. It's much riskier than staying indoors. It's complex. It uses up a lot of the precious resources onboard. It uses up oxygen. It uses up carbon dioxide scrubbers.

Since the age of 6, I've always wanted to go to space.

I have wanted to fly into space for many years, but never imagined it would really be feasible.

I've wanted to go to space, really, since I was a little girl.

I'm obsessed with the moon and space travel, so if I could incorporate that, I'd love to go to space.

In 2009 I went up on the space shuttle. I was in space for 16 days and docked at the space station for 11 days. The entire crew did five space walks, of which I was involved with three of them. When you're doing a space walk, you always have a buddy with you. It's a very dangerous environment when you're doing a space walk.

I had been lucky that my physiology is well suited to space training.

Would I like to go into space? No. Maybe I'd do it when I'm old and have done everything else on this planet.