19 Quotes by Shannon Lucid

When I got my PhD, it was a time when there were just no jobs for PhDs. Period. PhDs were getting the lowest paid technician jobs, if they were lucky, in any kind of science.

If you look at the whole thing, I think the most gratifying thing is my kids, without a doubt.

You think America is the biggest place on Earth, but it's not. [The view from Mir] put everything in perspective.

Basically, all my life I'd been told you can't do that because you're female. So I guess I just didn't pay any attention. I just went ahead and did what I could and then, when the stars aligned, I was ready.

You’re in charge but don’t touch the controls. Recounting what the two Russian cosmonauts tell her each time they leave the Mir space station for a spacewalk.

Basically, all my life I’d been told you can’t do that because you’re female. So I guess I just didn’t pay any attention. I just went ahead and did what I could and then, when the stars aligned, I was ready.

You’re in charge but don’t touch the controls.

I was really desperate. I don’t know if you can remember back that far, but when I went to graduate school they didn’t want females in graduate school. They were very open about it. They didn’t mince their words. But then I got in and I got my degree.

It was just using the liquid shampoo – the Russians have one very similar to the stuff we use on the Shuttle – you just wet your hair with it and then wipe it out.