Sally Ride - First American Woman in Space

Sally Ride is known all over the world, for being the first American woman, who went into space. In 1983 when Sally entered space, she was the youngest American of her time, to achieve this feat. Sally, a former astronaut of NASA, is also a renowned American physicist.

Carol Joyce and Dale Burdell Ride welcomed their first child, Sally Kristen Ride, on May 26, 1951 in Los Angeles, California. Sally was a brilliant student. She finished school from Portola Middle School and Westlake School for Girls, on a scholarship. Since her schooldays, Sally was very much interested in science. She graduated with English and physics, from Stanford University. She went on to acquire her master's degree and Ph.D. in physics from the same university. During her Ph.D., her field of research was astrophysics and free-electron laser physics.

Even as a child, Sally was very much drawn towards space exploration. Her dream to be a part of NASA came true in the year 1978. After the completion of her initial training at NASA, Sally served as Capsule Communicator (the person who interacts with the crew members of a spaceship) for space shuttle flights twice. She also helped both the space shuttle flights STS-1 and STS-2 (the acronym STS stands for Space Transportation System), in the development of their mechanical arm, also called the robot arm.

On June 18, 1983, Sally became a part of the five-member crew for STS-7 and boarded the Space Shuttle Challenger. On that day, when the Challenger zoomed into the Earth's orbit from the launch pad, she became the first American woman astronaut to travel in space. During their 6-day mission, Sally and her crew used the robot arm in space for the first time. They recovered a satellite with the help of the robot arm. They also positioned two new communication satellites for the Canadian and Indonesian governments, and carried out a number of pharmaceutical-related research experiments.

Sally became a part of the space mission for the second time on October 5, 1984. This time she boarded the Space Shuttle Challenger with six other crew members for STS 41-G. It was the largest crew that NASA had ever sent. Her role in the mission was that of a mission specialist. It was a 8-day mission where the crew placed satellites in orbit, used newly formatted cameras to make observations of the Earth and implemented a novel method to refuel artificial satellites. The mission ended on October 13, 1984, when the Challenger returned safely with the crew at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. In the two missions, Sally had spent a total of almost 343 hours in space.

Sally resigned from NASA in 1987 and joined the University Center for International Security and Arms Control. Later in 1989, she started her new career as a professor of physics at California University, San Diego, and also became the Director of California Space Institute. In 2001, she started her own company, Sally Ride Science, that designs various types of entertaining science programs and publications for school children. These programs are specially oriented towards encouraging girl students to become interested in science.

Sally has been awarded and honored many times. She received NASA's Space Flight Medal twice. She has been acknowledged with National Women's Hall of Fame and Astronaut Hall of Fame. She was a part of the investigating board that conducted inquiry in the accident of Space Shuttle Columbia in 2003.

During her growing up years, Sally was very passionate about tennis also. She was a national level tennis player. She even left her graduation studies in the middle, to focus on her career in tennis. But, after a few months of training, she realized that she did not want to pursue a professional career in tennis and went back to concentrate on her studies. Sally got married to a fellow astronaut Steve Hawley in 1982. But their marriage did not last long and the couple parted ways with a divorce in 1987.

Sally Ride achieved those heights which women of her generation could not even dream. Her cumulative contribution in space exploration and astrophysics will help the young scientists of future generations in many ways.