About Sally Ride
Sally Kristen Ride (May 26, 1951 – July 23, 2012) is best known as the first American woman to travel to space. With her groundbreaking trip, in 1983, she inspired a generation, following behind cosmonauts Valentina Tereshkova and Sveltlana Valentina Tereshkova and Svetlana Savitskaya as early female astronauts. At just 32 years old, she was also the youngest American astronaut to travel to space.
Path to Space
Sally was born in Los Angeles and studied English & Physics at Stanford University in the 1970s. In 1978 she graduated with a PhD in Physics in 1978. She joined NASA's space programme in the same year.
Missions to Space
During her career, Sally Ride joined 2 missions to space as crew on:
Fun Facts
The movement of Ariel's hair in Disney's animated film, The Little Mermaid was modeled on video footage of Sally Ride's hair in space.
In her own words
In this video, Sally Ride answers questions from young people who are interested in space. describing some of the challenges that she faced whilst working in her field and her vision for increasing opportunities for women in astronomy in the future.
References
Sally Ride – First American Woman in Space. https://www.nasa.gov/feature/sally-ride-first-american-woman-in-space
Who Was Sally Ride? https://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/k-4/stories/nasa-knows/who-was-sally-ride-k4.html
Sally Ride - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sally_Ride
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