Sally Ride, First American Woman In Space, Did More Than Fly (18 june 1983)

Sally Ride, First American Woman In Space, Did More Than Fly


On June 18, 1983, 32 years ago Thursday, Sally Ride climbed into the cockpit of the space shuttle Challenger to become the first American woman in space. Ride spent six days in orbit, deploying satellites and operating a robotic arm, and returned to earth a feminist hero.





“I don’t think I appreciated how much of a trailblazer I was for women and how much women would look up to me as a role model,” she said in an interview with the Academy of Achievement in 2006, adding, “I wasn’t face-to-face with women until I came back from my flight, and then it hit home pretty hard how important I was to an awful lot of women in the country.”

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Ride was only 27, studying for a Ph.D. in astrophysics at Stanford, when she spotted a newspaper ad for NASA astronauts. She knew immediately that becoming an astronaut was something she had to do. She did, however, ignore many of the questions reporters hounded her with: Are you afraid of being in orbit with all those men? Do you weep when things go wrong on the job? Will the flight affect your reproductive organs?
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In 2001, Ride founded Sally Ride Science in order to motivate young people, “especially girls and minorities” according to its company mission statement, to study STEM. The company helps educators run workshops, camps and “Science Festivals” to expose girls to the wonders of different scientific fields and to encourage educators to help girls stay in STEM. Ride also wrote seven books about science for children, including two about climate change.
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Ride was a feminist icon not just because she was an astronaut, but because she was also an advocate—of never letting others tell you what to do or who to be. O’Shaughnessy, who was also a co-founder of Sally Ride Science, wrote Ride’s obituary for the company website. “Her integrity was absolute,” the obituary read. “Her spirit was immeasurable; her approach to life was fearless.

http://msmagazine.com/blog/2015/06/18/sally-ride-first-american-woman-in-space-did-more-than-fly/