NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

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

And that was made pretty clear just the day that I was told I was selected to the crew, because I was also taken up to Chris Kraft's office -- he was the head of the Johnson Space Center -- because he wanted to have a little chat with me and make sure that I knew what I was getting into before I agreed to be on the crew.

But I was so dazzled just by the opportunity to be on the crew and go into space that I really don't remember very much of what he said. On launch day, there was so much excitement and so much happening around us. In the crew quarters. Even on the way to the launch pad.

Going up the launch pad, looking up and seeing this huge, you know, rocket that kind of sounds like an animal. You can kind of hear the gurgling, and the hissing. It sounds like it's alive.

I spent an enormous amount of effort just trying to stay focused. I tried to block out pretty much everything that was going on around me and just put one foot in front of the other. Because it would have been way too easy to just be lost in the moment.

I didn't really think about it that much at the time. Because i just wanted to get the opportunity to do that. But, I've -- I came to appreciate what an honor it was to be selected to be the first woman to get a chance to go into space.

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