Sally
Ride was born in Encino, California on May 26, 1951. She
was an avid tennis player during childhood, competing nationally. She
began her undergraduate work at Swarthmore College and then
transferred to Stanford University, where she competed on the women's
tennis team. She also did her graduate work in Physics at Stanford
and completed her Ph.D. there in 1978.
In 1978, Ride also applied for the NASA space program, along with 8,000 other applicants. She was one of 35 people chosen to join. Her first flight was on the Discovery shuttle in June 1983, making her the first U.S. woman in space. Her roles on that mission included launching communication satellites, doing pharmaceutical testing, and testing a "remote manipulator arm" that is used to launch and retrieve satellites. Ride's second mission into space was in October 1984 in which she continued her work with the remote manipulator arm and satellites.
In February 1986, Ride was named to a commission to investigate the explosion of the Challenger space shuttle. In 1987, Ride left NASA to pursue a fellowship position at Stanford University. She then went to the University of California at San Diego in 1989 to become a professor of physics and Director of the California Space Institute. Ride continues her work in San Diego today.
Page created by: Jennifer Harrington
Fox, Mary Virginia. (1987).Women Astronauts: Aboard the Shuttle: Julian Messner, New York, NY.
Great Women in American History -- Aviation & Space Travel Web site [Online]. Available at: http://hyperion.advanced.org/tq-admin/day.cgi
NASA Web site [Online]. Available at: http://www.nasa.gov
Sally Ride (1994). In The World Book Encyclopedia (Vol. 16, p. 336). U.S.A.: World Book, Inc.
Sally Ride: First American Woman in Space Web site [Online]. Available at: http://www.bena.com/lucidcafe/library/96may/ride.html