Today in the history of astronomy, Sally Ride breaks gender barriers in the American space program.
The first American woman in space, Sally Ride felt the weight of her historic role: ““The fact that I was going to be the first American woman to go into space carried huge expectations along with it,” she said in an interview 25 years later. Credit: NASA
Sally Ride made history aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger on June 18, 1983, becoming the first American woman in space 20 years nearly to the day after Soviet Valentina Tereshkova’s flight. In 1977, as she was finishing her Ph.D. in physics, Ride saw a newspaper ad placed by NASA to recruit astronauts. For the first time, women were allowed to apply. She was selected from 8,000 applicants, and went through extensive training including parachute jumping, water survival, and adapting to weightlessness; she also contributed to developing the shuttle’s robot arm and served as capsule communicator. During her mission, Ride operated the mechanical arm, deployed communication satellites, and conducted experiments. A very private person, she nonetheless handled her fame and inappropriate questions – such as what makeup she was taking to space and whether she would cry if something went wrong – with humor and grace. To continue to inspire girls to pursue STEM careers, Ride co-founded Sally Ride Science in 2001. She pblocked away in 2012.
