Sally ride: First woman astronaut
Dr. Sally Ride, Ph.D. studied at Stanford University before competing against 1,000 other applicants for a spot in NASA’s astronaut training program. After intense training, Ride joined the Challenger shuttle mission on June 18, 1983, and became the first American woman in space. A long-time advocate for science education, she initiated and helped with education projects designed to spark middle school students fascination with science. Ride was a member of the President's Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology and the National Research Council's Space Studies Board and has served on the boards of the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment, the Carnegie Institution of Washington and the National Collegiate Athletic Association Foundation(NCAA). She is the only person to have served on the commissions investigating both the space shuttle Challenger and Columbia accidents. Ride received numerous medals and awards. She was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame and the Astronaut Hall of Fame and has received the Jefferson Award for Public Service, the von Braun Award, the Lindbergh Eagle and the NCAA's Theodore Roosevelt Award. She has also twice been awarded the NASA Space Flight Medal.
Sally Ride was born on May 26, 1951, in Los Angeles, California. After she graduated from Westlake High School in Los Angeles, Ride decided to attend Stanford University. While at Stanford she received a Bachelor of Science in Physics and a Bachelor of Arts in English. Ride then went on to attain her Master of Science and Doctorate in Physics. That very same year she beat 1,000 other applicants and was selected as an astronaut candidate by NASA. After a year of rigorous training and evaluations (1979), Ride was accepted as an astronaut and was given the assignment of Mission Specialist on future shuttle flight crews. Her first mission, making her famous and putting her in the record books, was in 1983.
Ride was a Mission Specialist on two Space Shuttle missions. She was involved in deploying satellites for Canada and Indonesia. She operated the Canadian-built Remote Manipulator System to perform the first deployment and retrieval exercise with the Shuttle Pallet Satellite. Ride also conducted the first formation flying of the orbiting shuttle with a free-flying satellite, carried and operated the first U.S./German cooperative materials science payload, operated the Continuous Flow Electrophoresis System, and the Monodisperse Latex Reactor experiments. Ride accomplished this in her 147 hours in space. She served as a Mission Specialist in 1984 with the largest crew to date. She was a part of an eight- day mission which deployed the Earth Radiation Budget Satellite and conducted scientific observations of Earth. This mission’s duration was 197 hours, and concludded with a landing at Kennedy Space Center. Ride was assigned to another mission, but the mission was aborted after the space shuttle Challenger accident. Ride was a member of the Presidential Commission that investigated the accident. In 1989, Ride joined the University of California San Diego as a Professor of Physics and Director of the University of California's California Space Institute.
Sally Ride was born on May 26, 1951, in Los Angeles, California. After she graduated from Westlake High School in Los Angeles, Ride decided to attend Stanford University. While at Stanford she received a Bachelor of Science in Physics and a Bachelor of Arts in English. Ride then went on to attain her Master of Science and Doctorate in Physics. That very same year she beat 1,000 other applicants and was selected as an astronaut candidate by NASA. After a year of rigorous training and evaluations (1979), Ride was accepted as an astronaut and was given the assignment of Mission Specialist on future shuttle flight crews. Her first mission, making her famous and putting her in the record books, was in 1983.
Ride was a Mission Specialist on two Space Shuttle missions. She was involved in deploying satellites for Canada and Indonesia. She operated the Canadian-built Remote Manipulator System to perform the first deployment and retrieval exercise with the Shuttle Pallet Satellite. Ride also conducted the first formation flying of the orbiting shuttle with a free-flying satellite, carried and operated the first U.S./German cooperative materials science payload, operated the Continuous Flow Electrophoresis System, and the Monodisperse Latex Reactor experiments. Ride accomplished this in her 147 hours in space. She served as a Mission Specialist in 1984 with the largest crew to date. She was a part of an eight- day mission which deployed the Earth Radiation Budget Satellite and conducted scientific observations of Earth. This mission’s duration was 197 hours, and concludded with a landing at Kennedy Space Center. Ride was assigned to another mission, but the mission was aborted after the space shuttle Challenger accident. Ride was a member of the Presidential Commission that investigated the accident. In 1989, Ride joined the University of California San Diego as a Professor of Physics and Director of the University of California's California Space Institute.