Patricia Schroeder: “I am absolutely delighted with Newsweek because you know what it says? Here we have this wonderful picture of Shannon…”

“I am absolutely delighted with Newsweek because you know what it says? Here we have this wonderful picture of Shannon Lucid and it said: Forget the fighter jocks. At 53 years of age, Shannon Lucid has the new right stuff. To be in space 188 days is almost as long as this Congress has been in session and I must say I am very proud of the fact I held the first hearing here when we asked NASA why there were no women and they tried to explain to us, because you had to be tough and strong and it was back when the jock-ocracy was ruling that. Well, I pointed out I was a pilot and I understood it really was more like milking a mouse. They kind of swallowed hard and we finally moved on with moving women into that era. And now we have her defining the norm for the future. I think that is very exciting. Mr. Speaker, I congratulate Shannon and NASA for having the vision to move there and I think all of us as Americans are terribly proud of her accomplishment and very few of us would want to have changed places with her during those 188 days.”