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Sally Ride: First American Woman in Space

Updated: Nov 29, 2022




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:

  • Space Shuttle Challenger mission STS-7 in 1983

  • Space Shuttle Challenger mission STS-41-G in 1984


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

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