Former 'Dallas' Star Takes to Space

— -- America fell in love with Victoria Principal from the moment her face graced the small screen in 1978. She played the beautiful and wealthy Pamela Ewing on the long-running, prime-time soap "Dallas."

As a celebrity, Principal dated some of the most famous men in Hollywood. But outside of the spotlight, things weren't always so glamorous.

She struggled with a painful blood disease her entire life. In the early '80s, she weathered a tumultuous two-year relationship with pop heartthrob Andy Gibb, who later died. And last year, her 21-year marriage ended, leading her to call 2006 "one of the most painful years of my life."

At 57, she said that she's happier than ever and has no one to please but herself.

In 2008, Principal will go into space on the first commercial spaceflight. "I'm going to be one of the first civilian astronauts," she told ABC's Diane Sawyer about her upcoming trip on the Virgin Galactic.

Space may be the only place left for Principal to conquer, as she has already seen so much success on Earth.

After a bad reaction to the on-set makeup on "Dallas," she developed her own line of skin care products, taught herself about business and launched the incredibly popular cosmetics line "Principal Secret."

"People are so frightened of failure, but we're all going to fail," she said. "Go ahead and do it and, if you fail, learn, pick yourself up and do it right the next time."

She gave up acting at age 25 to pursue a career at an entertainment agency, where she worked her way up to the president of the Motion Picture Department, studying contractual law at night.

"I never once said, 'Please, God, give me a billion dollars.' I actually made a prayer. I said, 'Please, God, let 100 women buy this product' and then I'll know I helped 100 women," Principal explained.

When asked about the secret of her success, Principal said do what you love, money will follow.

"All those books about finding yourself, what are you, under some tree? The fact is you have to look within yourself, who you are, what you like about yourself, what you don't like, and create yourself," Principal said.