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| Fig. 1: Female Astronaut: Sally Ride. (Source: Wikimedia Commons) |
Sally Kristen Ride was born May 26, 1951 in Encino, California. [1] She began training and competing in tennis from the age at 10 and by the age of 16 earned a national ranking by breaking the US top 20. A tennis scholarship aided her admittance into a private girls school, Westlake High School, in Los Angeles. [2] Dr. Ride attended Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania for three semesters before transferring to Stanford University where she eventually graduated in 1973 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics alongside a Bachelor of Arts degree in English. During graduate school at Stanford she pursued a masters degree in Physics with her focus primarily on X-rays given off by stars. [3] In 1978, Dr. Ride received her doctorate in Physics and this same year applied to NASA after seeing an advertisement in the student newspaper, the Stanford Daily. [3]
On January 16, 1978 Dr. Sally Ride received the phone call that would dictate the next steps of her life. The NASA director of flight crew operations called and informed her of her position as one in the next NASA astronaut group of 35, with Dr. Ride being one of six females apart of the group. [2] Dr. Ride completed NASA training in August of 1979 and went further to obtain a pilot license, making herself qualified and eligible for assignment as a US space shuttle mission specialist. [1] See Fig. 1 for a photograph taken of Dr. Sally Ride at her time at NASA. During her training she became accustomed to the Shuttles robotic arm, the Remote Manipulator System (RMS), working to prepare procedures for using the robot arm once in orbit. Following intensive training, in 1983 she was assigned position of mission specialist, set to go on the Space Shuttle Challenger STS-7 mission.
The Challenger blasted off on June 18, 1983 from the Kennedy Space Center at 7:33 am. Aboard was Dr. Sally Ride, who at 32 years old was the youngest American in space so far, along with being the first American woman in space. [2] The mission lasted six days, and during this time Dr. Ride helped deploy and retrieve two communications satellites by utilizing her command of the shuttles 50-foot robotic arm, and also aided in carrying out a range of scientific experiments while on board. In October of 1984 Dr. Ride was chosen to serve on her second space mission aboard the Challenger, this mission making her the first American woman to make two trips to space.
The Challenger took off once again on October 5, 1984 from the Kennedy Space Center with a crew of seven astronauts on board. Also chosen for the mission was Kathryn Sullivan, a childhood friend of Dr. Ride who would become the first American woman to walk in space. [1] Again serving as a mission specialist, Dr. Ride assisted with further earth science experiments along with operating the shuttles robotic arm, which was used to release the Earth Radiation Budget Satellite. This satellite would be critical in measuring incoming energy from the sun and the outgoing energy from the Earth to provide important scientific observations of Earth. Following another successful mission, the Challenger landed after eight days at the Kennedy Space Center on October 13, 1984. [2] While training for her third shuttle mission, the tragic explosion after launch of the Challenger in January of 1986 occurred. This catastrophe led to NASA suspending shuttle flights for the next two years. Dr. Sally Ride served on the presidential commission appointed to investigate this accident. Dr. Sally Ride eventually resigned from NASA in 1987 following a distinguished career. [1]
Two years after Dr. Ride's resignation, she became professor of Physics at the University of California, San Diego and also director of its California Space Institute until 1996. In 2002, women accounted for only 10% of faculty in Physics. [4] Following her career in academia, she next focused her efforts on how to reach kids, dreaming to break down barriers for girls in STEM fields. In 2001 Dr. Ride created her own company, Sally Ride Science, whose goal was to create educational and immersive science programs for elementary and middle school level students, their parents, and teachers. Aligned with her interest in advocating for science education, she co-wrote seven science children books about space. [2]
Sally Ride passed away on July 23, 2012 at the age of 61 following her 17 month battle against pancreatic cancer. It is undeniable the impact Sally Ride made in the NASA space program but also in the classroom for many young students. Former president Barack Obama awarded Dr. Ride the Presidential Medal of Freedom and stated that Dr. Ride was a national hero and a powerful role model. She inspired generations of young girls to reach for the stars. [2]
© Audriana Fitzmorris. The author warrants that the work is the author's own and that Stanford University provided no input other than typesetting and referencing guidelines. The author grants permission to copy, distribute and display this work in unaltered form, with attribution to the author, for noncommercial purposes only. All other rights, including commercial rights, are reserved to the author.
[1] M. Anderson, Pioneers in Astronomy and Space Exploration (Britannica Education Publishing, 2012) pp 125-128.
[2] K. B. Gibson, Women in Space: 23 Stories of First Flights, Scientific Missions, and Gravity-Breaking Adventures (Chicago Review Press, 2014) pp 81-88.
[3] U. Cavallaro, Women Spacefarers (Springer, 2017) pp 17-24.
[4] To Recruit and Advance: Women Students and Faculty in Science and Engineering (National Academies Press, 2006), pp 6-7.
