SEATTLE - Just like in the real world, the astronaut wannabes -- 8th graders at the Seattle Girls' School --  take questions. Questions from wannabe reporters -- yes, their parents.

"How are you going to perform, and set yourselves apart making a new name for women astronauts?" asked one reporter/parent.

Jazz Brandon had a quick response: "I think us women, we're going to show the world that we can do anything!"

Exactly the point of the Mission to Mars school project. It's to show the girls that anything is possible. And the sky's the limit.

It's time for lift off. "5, 4, 3, 2, 1, blast off!" the eight girls scream with excitement.

Ravenna Napp Shapiro admits she's, "nervous, yeah." There are video feeds to see the astronauts' every move. Like in the real world.

Lisa Green's job is to communicate with mission control. Kristin McLerran is charge of the health of the astronauts. She was busy taking Regan Bell's blood pressure.

The astronauts found a fair way to decide which student would be in charge of lift off: The game of rock, paper, scissors. Morgan won!

It was a perfect lift off.

"I guess the point is not to die," Lisa Green joked. And the point is to see the possibilities out there.

"I think it's good to explore and go past your boundaries and that's what we're doing," says Jamila Watson.

The Seattle Girls' School has four crews taking the simulated flights to Mars. At the beginning of the year, the girls actually got to fly a small plane--as co-pilots. No 'simulation'. We're talking a real plane, and a real flight. For some of them, it was their first time in a plane.