One thing I probably share with everyone else in the astronaut office is composure. Sally Ride More Quotes by Sally Ride More Quotes From Sally Ride On a standard space shuttle crew, two of the astronauts have a test pilot background - the commander and the pilot. Sally Ride pilots space two My parents must have done a great job. Anytime I wanted to pursue something that they weren't familiar with, that was not part of their lifestyle, they let me go ahead and do it. Sally Ride parent done jobs Once you are assigned to a flight, the whole crew is assigned at the same time, and then that crew trains together for a whole year to prepare for that flight. Sally Ride flight together years So I saw many planets, and they looked just a little bit brighter than they do from Earth. Sally Ride saws earth littles The pressure suit helps if something goes wrong during launch or re-entry - astronauts have a way to parachute off the shuttle. The suits protect you from loss of pressure in case of emergency. Sally Ride suits loss way But even in elementary school and junior high, I was very interested in space and in the space program. Sally Ride juniors space school I was always very interested in science, and I knew that for me, science was a better long-term career than tennis. Sally Ride tennis careers long I think eventually private enterprise will be able to send people into orbit, but I suspect initially it's going to have to be with NASA's help. Sally Ride orbit people thinking I liked math - that was my favorite subject - and I was very interested in astronomy and in physical science. Sally Ride favorite-subject astronomy math Eventually private enterprise will be able to send people into orbit, but I suspect initially it's going to have to be with NASA's help. Whether it's going to be a consortium or one entity remains to be seen. I could be wrong. I could be one of the old fogies! Rocket science is tough, and rockets have a way of failing. It happens. A company has to be willing to bear the risk of its rocket failing. It's a very large capital investment. Sally Ride risk able people It was hard to become an astronaut. Not anywhere near as much physical training as people imagine, but a lot of mental training, a lot of learning. You have to learn everything there is to know about the Space Shuttle and everything you are going to be doing, and everything you need to know if something goes wrong, and then once you have learned it all, you have to practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice until everything is second nature, so it's a very, very difficult training, and it takes years. Sally Ride space practice years There's a huge amount of pressure on every astronaut, because when you get right down to it, the experiments that are conducted on a space flight, or the satellites that are carried up, the work that's to be done, is important and expensive work, and you are up there for a week or two on a Space Shuttle flight. The country has invested a lot of money in you and your training, and the Space Shuttle and everything that's in it, and you have to do things correctly. You can't make a mistake during that week or two that you're in space. Sally Ride space-flight mistake country After the Challenger accident, NASA put in a lot of time to improve the safety of the space shuttle to fix the things that had gone wrong. Sally Ride safety space gone It takes a few years to prepare for a space mission. Sally Ride missions space years My background is in physics, so I was the mission specialist, who is sort of like the flight engineer on an airplane. Sally Ride flight airplane physics I do a lot of running and hiking, and I also collect stamps - space stamps and Olympics stamps. Sally Ride hiking space running But when I wasn't working, I was usually at a window looking down at Earth. Sally Ride looking-down earth window It's easy to sleep floating around - it's very comfortable. But you have to be careful that you don't float into somebody or something! Sally Ride floating easy sleep 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. Sally Ride important jobs people I didn't really decide that I wanted to be an astronaut for sure until the end of college. Sally Ride astronaut ends college
