Sally Ride quotes

The stars don't look bigger, but they do look brighter.

No, I think most astronauts recognize that the space shuttle program is very high-risk, and are prepared for accidents.

Rocket science is tough, and rockets have a way of failing.

All adventures, especially into new territory, are scary.

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.

When you're getting ready to launch into space, you're sitting on a big explosion waiting to happen.

It takes a couple of years just to get the background and knowledge that you need before you can go into detailed training for your mission.

The food isn't too bad. It's very different from the food that the astronauts ate in the very early days of the space program.

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!

One thing I probably share with everyone else in the astronaut office is composure.

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.

For a long time, society put obstacles in the way of women who wanted to enter the sciences.

For whatever reason, I didn't succumb to the stereotype that science wasn't for girls. I got encouragement from my parents. I never ran into a teacher or a counselor who told me that science was for boys. A lot of my friends did.

The view of Earth is spectacular.

For a long time, society put obstacles in the way of women who wanted to enter the sciences.

I did not come to NASA to make history.

For whatever reason, I didn't succumb to the stereotype that science wasn't for girls. I got encouragement from my parents. I never ran into a teacher or a counselor who told me that science was for boys. A lot of my friends did.

Rocket science is tough, and rockets have a way of failing.

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.

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