Yes, I did feel a special responsibility to be the first American woman in space.

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

The space shuttle is a better and safer rocket than it was before the Challenger accident.

I slept just floating in the middle of the flight deck, the upper deck of the space shuttle.

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.

On a standard space shuttle crew, two of the astronauts have a test pilot background - the commander and the pilot.