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I've had a chance to fly a lot of different airplanes, but it was nothing like the shuttle ride.

Having the opportunity to fly the first flight of something like a space shuttle was the ultimate test flight.

Then during the mission itself, I used the space shuttle's robot arm to release a satellite into orbit.

I've always wanted to do a space movie.

The excitement really didn't start to build until the trailer - which was carrying me, with a space suit with ventilation and all that sort of stuff - pulled up to the launch pad.

I witnessed the building of the Space Shuttle Columbia, the first orbiter to be launched into space.

Aviation - and space travel, in particular - have always been especially captivating.

The fact that I was going to be the first American woman to go into space carried huge expectations along with it.

In my mind I needed a symbol of today's technology, and I realized that what I wanted to photograph was the Space Shuttle. And so that's where Places of Power came into being.

When I was in the gunner's bubble of a B25 bomber, taking off from an aircraft carrier 100 miles off the coast of San Diego, I remember saying to myself how amazing it was to get the chance to do that.