Astronaut Sally Ride became the first American woman in space on this day in history, June 18, 1983.
Born on May 26, 1951, in Los Angeles, Ride earned bachelor’s degrees in English and physics from Stanford University in California before staying at Stanford and earning a PhD in physics in 1978.
Shortly before earning her doctorate, Ride saw an ad for a newspaper that piqued her interest.
Ride’s job on the shuttle was to work the robotic arm to put the satellites in space.
While Ride was the first American woman in space, she was actually the third overall woman to embark on a spaceflight.
The first woman in space, Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, flew into space on June 16, 1963, spending two days in orbit on Vostok 6.
While Ride was the first American woman in space, she was actually the third overall woman to embark on a spaceflight.
At just 26 years old at that time, Tereshkova, a Russian, is still to date the youngest woman in space, said the European Space Agency.
The second woman in space was also a Russian — Svetlana Yevgenyevna Savitskaya, who flew aboard Soyuz T-7 in 1982.
Ride would return to space for her second and final spaceflight on STS-41-G in 1984.
Ride spent eight days on this mission aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger.
She was selected for a third flight.
That mission did not happen, however, due to the Challenger disaster in 1986.
Instead, Ride took a role with the Rogers Commission, investigating what caused Space Shuttle Challenger to explode, said NASA.
“It looked like someone had taken a blue pencil and outlined the Earth.”
Her time in space was deeply impactful.
“I remember floating over to the window for the first time, looking toward the horizon and seeing a very, very thin royal-blue line all the way across the horizon,” said Ride.
“It looked like someone had taken a blue pencil and outlined the Earth. According to her comments on NASA’s site, “I realized the blue line represented Earth’s atmospheric layer.”
“It was memorable because it was obvious then how fragile and delicate our atmosphere is — there just isn’t very much of it — but it sure is important!”
Ride said that her favorite thing about spaceflight was the feeling of weightlessness.
“There’s really nothing like it on Earth,” she said.
She also had quite a bit of fun with it.
“When I first got into orbit, I did the same thing as many astronauts: I held my pen in front of me and then let go. It floated,” said Ride.
“Once I got used to weightlessness, I could do 30 somersaults in a row and slither like a seal from one side of the cabin to the other with just a gentle push.”
Ride retired from NASA in 1987, and took a teaching position at the University of California, San Diego.
There, she also served as the director of the University of California’s California Space Institute.
In 2001, she founded Sally Ride Science, an organization dedicated to encouraging girls to enter STEM fields, noted NASA.
“There are girls involved in science because of Sally Ride.”
Two years later, in 2003, Ride was inducted into the Astronaut Hall of Fame.
“There are girls involved in science firmly because of Sally Ride,” said author and broadcaster Lynn Sherr in an interview shortly after the 2014 publication of her biography of the astronaut, “Sally Ride: America’s First Woman in Space.”
Ride died on July 23, 2012, at the age of 61, about a year after she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, according to news reports at the time of her death.
“Sally Ride broke barriers with grace and professionalism – and literally changed the face of America’s space program,” said former NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, in comments posted on NASA’s website.
Ride logged a total of 343 hours in space during her two space flights.
One of Ride’s last legacies was allowing middle school students to take their own pictures of the moon using cameras aboard NASA’s twin Grail spacecraft in a project spearheaded by her company, according to the Associated Press
The post On this day in history, June 18, 1983, astronaut Sally Ride becomes first American woman in space appeared first on Fox News.
