The Fact That I Was Going To

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.

It's Well Known That Many Girls Have A Tendency To Dumb Down When They're In Middle School.

The Fact That I Was Going To Be The First American Woman To Go Into Space Carried Huge Expectations Along With It.

Because I Was A Tennis Player, Billie Jean King Was A Hero Of Mine.

I Felt Very Honored, And I Knew That People Would Be Watching Very Closely, And I Felt It Was Very, Very Important That I Do A Good Job.