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Who Was Sally Ride?
Sally Ride was in the first group of astronauts to include women. Image Credit: NASA
Sally Ride was the first American woman to fly in space. She was the founder of Sally Ride Science and the Sally Ride Science Festivals. She liked to run and play tennis, volleyball and softball. Ride wrote several science books for children. The books are about space exploration, Earth and the solar system.
What Was Sally Ride's Early Life Like?
Sally Ride was born May 26, 1951, in Los Angeles, Calif. After high school, she attended Stanford University in California. She earned bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees in physics. Physics is the study of matter and energy and how they interact.
How Did Sally Ride Become an Astronaut?
Sally Ride applied to be an astronaut in 1977. It was the first time that women were invited to apply to the astronaut program. Ride was a college student and saw an advertisement that NASA was looking for women astronauts. She was one of six women selected to the astronaut corps in 1978.
Sally Ride became the first American woman in space on the STS-7 space shuttle mission. Image Credit: NASA
In 1983, Sally Ride became the first American woman to fly in space. She was a mission specialist on the STS-7 space shuttle mission. A mission specialist does the assigned tasks of a mission. These tasks include using the robotic arm, going on spacewalks and doing science experiments. During her flight, Ride worked the robotic arm to help release satellites into space. She flew on the space shuttle again in 1984 on the STS 41-G mission.
What Did Sally Ride Do After Leaving NASA?
Ride retired from NASA in 1987. She became a professor at the University of California San Diego. She also looked for new ways to encourage women and girls to study science and mathematics. She came up with the idea for NASA's EarthKAM project. The project lets middle school students select, shoot, download and study photos of Earth using a camera on the International Space Station.
In 2003, Ride was inducted to the Astronaut Hall of Fame. The Astronaut Hall of Fame honors astronauts for their accomplishments in spaceflight. She was awarded the 2012 National Space Grant Distinguished Service Award.
After she left NASA, Sally Ride continued to encourage girls to be interested in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Image Credit: Sally Ride Science
More About Sally Ride:
› Sally Ride Bio →
› Sally Ride: First American Woman in Space Photo Gallery
› Video: Sally Ride 25 Years Later →
› EarthKAM →