I thought that NASA didn't take biologists and so nothing would come of it. But I knew I would regret it if I did not apply.
Folks should find what really inspires them; they should always pursue what they want to do.
Young people can accomplish a lot.
From as young as I can remember, I wanted to be - in order - an astronaut, a geologist, and a biologist.
I've always been fascinated with science and exploring our world, from microbes to the solar system.
I'm involved with health care/medical supply delivery to Africa and started a non-profit organization to bring supplies to Congo.
Spaceflight is a tricky business. It is definitely difficult, and I think we forget that sometime.
You absolutely know you're in space when you're doing a spacewalk. That was pretty interesting because you can feel vacuum. It actually changes your vocal cords because the pressure inside the suit drops quite a bit, so your voice feels different.
When you go to vacuum in the airlock and you take the hose off the front of your space suit, there's a little bit of water in there, and you can see that sublimate and ice crystals form and fly away. My thought at that moment was, 'Oh, we are not kidding at vacuum here; we are really in space.'
When we're doing the space walks, we're working very very hard. Every single minute is choreographed. But there's a few minutes here and there where ground is maybe talking about something, and you have to put your tools down and wait. Just getting a chance to look through your visor and see the planet go by was incredible.
When I was at Stanford, I was actually in the cancer biology program, but I mostly focused on infectious disease.
When I started working at NASA and understanding what the capabilities really were of the space station and the space program, one of the biggest draws for me was the ability to do experiments in space. We can do a number of experiments where gravity is actually a variable.
I think it's going to be amazing to see how the world of microbiology, molecular and cellular biology, and human physiology is massively changed by microgravity.
There's a world of insights to be gained into human health and disease by understanding how gravity and space radiation influence biology.
If you find something that you're excited about and you're interested in, my advice to young women and young men would be do what you're really interested in and what drives and motivates you.
I don't think you ever really decide that you want to be an astronaut. I put in an application and hoped for the best.
The planet is beautiful.
It changes your perspective to be able to look out the window and see the planet. One of the thoughts that I had when I first got up here was, 'We really do live on a planet, and we are in a solar system, and we are flying through space right now.' I mean, this is something that you know, obviously, but to see the planet - it's amazing.
