You probably know this already, but Sally Ride was the first American woman to fly in space, aboard the space shuttle Challenger.
She was born in 1951 in Los Angeles, but most people don’t know that Ride was pursuing a career in professional tennis before she found interest in science. She studies at the Stanford
University where she was a double major in both physics and English, even though she continued studying physics at the university, earning a master’s degree later on, and a Ph.D. three years later.
In that exact same year, Ride and other 1,000 applicants fought very hard for one single spot in NASA’s astronaut program, but she managed to get it and went through rigorous training in order to make history. And that’s how Ride managed to become the first American woman in space, in an important mission where she contributed to deploying satellites and worked on other projects, as well.
After six days in space, her team returned to Earth, but her journey didn’t stop there. Ride started working as a mission specialist on a space shuttle flight that took place one year later. Even though she had a third space trip scheduled, everything got canceled due to the terrible 1986 Challenger accident.
After that, Ride worked on investigating the tragic explosion for a few years. In 1989, after leaving NASA behind, Sally Ride became the director of the California Space Institute at the University of California, San Diego, and a physics professor. However, she wanted to start her own company, which she did in 2001. Through Sally Ride Science, she was able to create educational programs and products for all the girls and women out there interested in science.
Her incredible career in science and space explorations lead to receiving many distinctions, including the NASA Space Flight Medal and the NCAA’s Theodore Roosevelt Award. In her last years of life, Ride was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, which contributed to her death in 2012.
Read also: 50 Famous Firsts from Science History.
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