SALLY KRISTEN RIDE
MAY 26 1951- PRESENT
"FIRST AMERICAN WOMAN IN SPACE"
Ride was born in Encino California on May 26th 1951. At the age of ten she was an excellent tennis and earned a scholarship to Westlake school for girls in Los Angeles, California. When she graduated in 1968 from high school she enrolled in Swarthmore college, but ended up dropping out that college to pursue her career as a tennis player. After a couple of months she thought she was not as good as she thought of a tennis player so instead she enrolled at Stanford University.
Being enrolled There she obtained her Bachelor of Arts degree, Bachelor of Science, and Masters Degree. while seeking for a postdoctoral job in astrophysics, shse read about NASA's call for astronauts. Sally's interest for this was a lot that she applied for this. A lot od men and women had applied for this job/opportunity, in fact more than 8,000, but only 35 people were accepted and among these people Sally Ride was one of them. Sally Ride Joined the NASA in 1977.
Sally Ride served as communications officer for the second and third flights of the Space Shuttle Columbia which was on November 1981 and March 1982, she was also assigned to the team that designed the remote mechanical arm, used by shuttle crews to deploy and retrieve satellites. In 1983, Ride became the first American woman in space, She flew on the Space Shuttle Challenger (STS-7). She flew again in 1984, aboard Challenger (STS-41G). During those two flights, in total, Sally spent more than 343 hours in space. After the Shuttle Challenger exploded in 1986, and killed every one aboard, Sally was assigned to the Presidential Commission charged with investigating the accident. She afterwards moved to NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C., where she became assistant to the NASA administrator for long-range planning. During this time, she created NASA's Office of Exploration and produced a report on the future of the space program which wascalled, Leadership and America's Future in Space.
In 1987, Sally Retired From working with NASA. She then worked at Center for International Security and Arms Control at Stanford University. Later in 1989, she became Director of the California Space Institute and Professor of Physics at the University of California at San Diego.
SAlly Ride was an important figure in the 80's because, she was the first wonam, american that is , in space. She made our country proud. With her going into space, proved that anyone can go far in their life, if they are determined to do so.
AWARDS:
- The Jefferson Award for Public Service,
-The Women's Research and Education Institute's American Woman Award
- National Spaceflight Medal (twice).
FACTS:
- Wrote and collaborated in the following books:
-To Space and BackVoyager: An Adventure to the Edge of the Solar System, The Third Planet: Exploring the Earth from Space,The Mystery of Mars,Exploring Our Solar System
