It is incredibly difficult to be selected for NASA's astronaut program.

If there's one thing these elite folks tend to have in common besides being very highly educated and highly driven, it is that they

started dreaming of careers in space from the time they were very small children. Katie Coleman,

who spent a total of six months in orbit on two shuttle missions and one extended posting aboard

the International Space Station, her story is different because when she was a little girl,

imagining careers for

herself, it appeared that to be an astronaut, you had to be a man. From KERA in Dallas,

this is Think. I'm Chris Boyd. Coleman was already in her junior year studying chemistry at MIT

when everything changed. At the time, it was rare for women to even be

invited as speakers to the students there. But in 1982, astronaut Sally Ride gave a speech,

and more important, gave Coleman what felt like permission to pursue a career that had once

seemed closed to her. Katie Coleman is a former NASA astronaut, retired United States Air Force

Colonel, Scientist, Pilot, and Amateur Musician in the Astronaut Band. Her memoir is called

Sharing Space, an astronaut's guide to Mission, Wonder, and Making Change. Katie, welcome to think.

Thank you very much. I've been very excited about talking together. Me too. You know, so many

successful people tell their own stories to emphasize how they always had unshakable self-confidence.

I find this very inspiring, but also a little hard to relate to. So I appreciated the way you wrote

about the effect of being underestimated by others at different points in your life.

You do start to doubt yourself, but it doesn't end there.

Well, like, it's been an interesting thing for me to sort of figure out, you know, over my lifetime.

Like, why does it bother me when so much when people, you know, seem to just kind of go, really, a real one?

You're a real astronaut?

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