I feel privileged and honored to have flown. It's been a tremendous ride, looking back on the legacy and accomplishments, like the Hubble telescope and the launching of the International Space Station in 1998.
CASIS has to succeed because for it not to succeed would be a huge setback for the International Space Station program.
I think that my career and perhaps me being on the International Space Station can really show women and girls and everybody that hey, we're not just sitting at the table, we're leading the table.
I'm a fully trained cosmonaut and have completed 800 hours training, which has made me the No. 1 civilian reserve ready to visit the International Space Station. I am determined to go up, and I want to explore the Moon, Mars and beyond!
I think both the space shuttle program and the International Space Station program have not really lived up to their expectations.
When the International Space Station is finally launched, it will be fitted with special nickel-hydrogen batteries weighing a total of several tons, with a lifetime of just five years, requiring spares to be brought up from Earth at literally astronomical expense.
The International Space Station is a phenomenal laboratory, an unparalleled test bed for new invention and discovery. Yet I often thought, while silently gazing out the window at Earth, that the actual legacy of humanity's attempts to step into space will be a better understanding of our current planet and how to take care of it.
We continue to not only operate the International Space Station but to increase its capabilities as well as commercial contributions.
We've learned a lot by building the International Space Station, the good, the bad. But, the fact is is that working together as a team, unity aboard that space station, we can accomplish great things.
The building of the International Space Station is something wonderful, and it will show us how to take the next step beyond low-Earth orbit.
