It's Too Bad Our Society Isn't Further

I Can't Remember A Single Time [my Parents] Ever Told Me Not To Do Something I Wanted To Do.

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.

Anything From Making A Mistake On An Experiment That Would Ruin Some Scientist On Earth's Experiment - Career, Potentially - To Doing Something Wrong With The Satellite That A Country Was Depending On For Its Communications, To Making Some Mistake That Could Actually Cost You And The Crew Either A Mission Or Your Lives. So There Is A Lot Of Pressure That's Put On Every Astronaut To Just Make Sure That He Or She Understands Exactly What To Do, Exactly When To Do It, And Is Trained And Prepared To Carry It Out.

I Think Maybe It's Too Bad That Our Society Isn't Further Along And This Is Such A Big Deal. I Think It's Time...that People Realize That Women In This Country Can Do Any Job They Want To Do.

If We Want Scientists And Engineers In The Future, We Should Be Cultivating The Girls As Much As The Boys.