Sally Kristen Ride
Sally Kristen Ride was an American physicist, astronaut, educator, and one of the most visible figures of the Space Shuttle era. Selected with NASA Astronaut Group 8 in 1978, she entered the first NASA astronaut class to include women and became the first American woman in space.
- Born
- May 26, 1951
- Died
- July 23, 2012
- Birthplace
- Los Angeles, California,United States
Flights
2
Spacewalks
0
EVA time
N/A
In space
14 days, 7 hours, 46 minutes
Bio
Ride came to NASA from Stanford University, where she studied physics and English and completed graduate research in astrophysics. Before her first flight, she worked as a CAPCOM for early shuttle missions and helped develop procedures for the Shuttle Remote Manipulator System, the robotic arm that became central to payload work.
Her first spaceflight was STS-7 in 1983 aboard Challenger. Ride served as while the crew deployed communications satellites and used the robotic arm to deploy and retrieve SPAS-1, giving the shuttle program an early demonstration of free-flying payload operations.
Ride flew again on STS-41-G in 1984, the first mission to carry two women. After Challenger, she served on the Rogers Commission and later became the only person to serve on both the Challenger and Columbia accident investigation boards.
After leaving NASA, Ride worked in academia, wrote science books, and co-founded Sally Ride Science to encourage students, especially girls, to pursue science and engineering. Her public legacy sits at the intersection of spaceflight, physics, education, and representation.