Sally Kristen Ride (May 26, 1951โJuly 23, 2012) was an American astronaut and physicist. Born in Southern California, she joined NASA in 1978, and in 1983, became the first American woman and the third woman to fly in space.
๐ Early Life and Education
Sally Kristen Ride was born on May 26, 1951, in Santa Monica, California. She grew up in the Van Nuys and Encino neighborhoods of Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley. Ride was a graduate of Stanford University, where she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in physics and a Bachelor of Arts degree in English literature in 1973, a Master of Science degree in 1975, and a Doctor of Philosophy in 1978.
๐พ Tennis and College Years
Ride enjoyed sports, tennis most of all, and at age 10 was coached by Alice Marble. She attended Swarthmore College on a full scholarship, where she became the Eastern Intercollegiate Women’s Singles champion. After three semesters at Swarthmore, she returned to California in January 1970, with the aim of becoming a professional tennis player. Her foray into professional tennis was unsuccessful; she concluded that she did not have what it took to be a professional tennis player.
๐ฉโ๐ NASA Career
In January 1977, Ride spotted an article on the front page of The Stanford Daily that told how NASA was recruiting a new group of astronauts for the Space Shuttle program. She was selected as part of NASA Astronaut Group 8, the first class of NASA astronauts to include women. After completing her training in 1979, she served as the ground-based capsule communicator (CapCom) for the second and third Space Shuttle flights, and helped develop the Space Shuttle’s robotic arm. In June 1983, she flew in space on the Space Shuttle Challenger on the STS-7 mission. Her second space flight was the STS-41-G mission in 1984, also on board Challenger. She spent a total of more than 343 hours in space. She left NASA in 1987.
๐ฌ Post-NASA Work and Personal Life
Ride worked for two years at Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Arms Control, then at the University of California, San Diego, primarily researching nonlinear optics and Thomson scattering. She served on the committees that investigated the loss of Challenger and of Columbia, the only person to participate in both. Having been married to astronaut Steven Hawley during her spaceflight years and in a private, long-term relationship with former Women’s Tennis Association player Tam O’Shaughnessy, she is the first astronaut known to have been LGBTQ.
| Category | Detail | Category | Detail |
|---|---|---|---|
| Born | May 26, 1951 | Died | July 23, 2012 |
| First Space Flight | STS-7, June 1983 | Second Space Flight | STS-41-G, 1984 |
| Total Space Time | More than 343 hours | NASA Group | Astronaut Group 8 |
| Education | Stanford University (BS, BA, MS, PhD) | Investigations | Challenger and Columbia committees |