sciencenetlinks:TODAY IN SCIENCE: The First Woman in SpaceSally Ride became the first American woman
sciencenetlinks:TODAY IN SCIENCE: The First Woman in SpaceSally Ride became the first American woman in space on this day in 1983.Lift-off is very exciting! There isn’t really time to be scared, but it’s exhilarating and sometimes overwhelming. —Sally Ride, Female Frontiers QuestChat, March 23, 1999As a child, Ride’s dream was to be a professional tennis player. As an adult, she achieved something that many children dream of doing – she became an astronaut and orbited the Earth.Ride entered the astronaut corps in 1978, one of only 35 people accepted out of over 8,000 applications, and was trained as a mission specialist. Her qualifications included a doctoral degree in physics. One of only six women accepted into NASA’s space program the year she applied, Ride became the first American woman in space when she blasted off aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger on this day in 1983.Ride flew on two space flights during her career at NASA, both aboard Challenger. During Ride’s second space flight, in October 1984, one of the crew, Dr. Kathy Sullivan, became the first woman to walk in space. Ride’s planned third flight was cancelled after the Challenger exploded in January of 1986; Ride served on the Presidential Commission that investigated the accident.In 1987, Ride left the astronaut corps to teach at Stanford University, hoping to encourage more women to pursue careers in science and engineering. She has written several books, including a children’s book titled To Space and Back.Learn more.Image Credits: NASADr. Ride sits in the aft flight deck mission specialist’s seat during deorbit preparations. Ride floating in the Challenger flight deck. Ride before taking off in a T-38 jet, bound for NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, three days before launch aboard Space Shuttle Challenger. Ride participates in a mission sequence test in preparation for the STS-7 mission. Video: Sally Ride on Dumb Questions | Blank on Blank | PBS Digital Studios -- source link