Sally Ride facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Sally Ride
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Ride in 1984
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Sally Kristen Ride
May 26, 1951 Los Angeles, California, U.S.
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| Died | July 23, 2012 (aged 61) San Diego, California, U.S.
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| Education | Stanford University (BA, BS, MS, PhD) |
| Occupation | Physicist |
| Spouse(s) | |
| Partner(s) | Tam O'Shaughnessy (1985–2012; Ride's death) |
| Awards | Presidential Medal of Freedom (posthumous, 2013) |
| Space career | |
| NASA astronaut | |
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Time in space
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14d 07h 46m |
| Selection | 1978 NASA Group |
| Missions | |
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Mission insignia
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| Retirement | August 15, 1987 |
Sally Kristen Ride (May 26, 1951 – July 23, 2012) was an American astronaut and physicist. She was born in Los Angeles, California. In 1978, she joined NASA, the United States space agency. In 1983, Sally Ride made history. She became the first American woman to fly into space. She was also the third woman in space overall. Before her, two Soviet cosmonauts, Valentina Tereshkova (1963) and Svetlana Savitskaya (1982), had flown. At 32 years old, Sally Ride was the youngest American astronaut to travel to space.
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Early Life and Growing Up
Sally Kristen Ride was born on May 26, 1951. Her parents were Dale Burdell Ride and Carol Joyce Ride. She had a younger sister named Karen. Sally grew up in Los Angeles, California.
She loved sports, especially tennis. When she was 10, a famous tennis player, Alice Marble, coached her. By 1963, Sally was ranked among the top young tennis players in Southern California.
Sally's Education Journey
Sally went to several schools in Los Angeles. She attended Encino Elementary School and Portola Junior High. Later, she went to Westlake School for Girls on a tennis scholarship. During this time, she decided she wanted to become an astrophysicist. After graduating in 1968, she took advanced math classes.
She then went to Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania. She played golf and was on the field hockey team. She was also a champion in college tennis. But Sally missed California. She decided to return home in 1970.
Sally then studied at the University of California, Los Angeles. She took classes in different subjects, including quantum mechanics (a type of physics). She was the only woman studying physics there. She decided not to become a professional tennis player. It required too much practice time.
Later, Sally transferred to Stanford University. She earned two bachelor's degrees in 1973. One was in physics, and the other was in English literature. She continued her studies and received a master's degree in physics in 1975. In 1978, she earned her PhD in physics. Her studies focused on how X-rays interact with space material.
Becoming a NASA Astronaut
In 1977, Sally Ride saw an article. It said that NASA was looking for new astronauts. For the first time, NASA wanted to recruit women for the Space Shuttle program. No American women had been astronauts before. Sally quickly applied.
NASA received 8,079 applications. Sally was one of 208 finalists. She went to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. There, she had interviews and medical tests. Doctors were impressed by how fit she was. She also wrote an essay about why she wanted to be an astronaut.
On January 16, 1978, Sally got a call. She was chosen to be part of NASA Astronaut Group 8. This group had 35 astronaut candidates. Six of them were women.
After finishing her training in 1979, Sally worked for NASA. She was a capsule communicator (CapCom) for early Space Shuttle flights. This meant she talked to the astronauts from the ground. She also helped create the Space Shuttle's robotic arm.
In June 1983, Sally flew into space on the Space Shuttle Challenger. This was the STS-7 mission. The mission launched two satellites. Sally used the robotic arm to deploy and retrieve a satellite called SPAS-1. Her second space flight was the STS-41-G mission in 1984. This was also on the Challenger. Sally left NASA in 1987.
First American Woman in Space
On June 18, 1983, the Space Shuttle Challenger launched. Sally Ride became the first American woman in space. She was also the third woman overall. Many people at the launch wore T-shirts that said "Ride, Sally Ride." This was from a popular song.
The mission also studied Space adaptation syndrome. This is when astronauts feel sick in space. Sally was not affected by it. Bad weather made the Challenger land in California. The mission lasted for over 6 days.
After her flight, Sally became very famous. She toured and met with important leaders. She also met Svetlana Savitskaya, the second woman in space. They became good friends.
Life After NASA
After leaving NASA, Sally Ride worked at Stanford University. She studied international security. In 1989, she became a physics professor at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). She also directed the California Space Institute. She retired from UCSD in 2007.
Sally led two programs for NASA. These were the ISS EarthKAM and GRAIL MoonKAM projects. These programs let middle school students request images of Earth and the Moon.
From 1999 to 2000, Sally was president of Space.com. This website shared news about science and space. Then, she became the president and CEO of Sally Ride Science. She started this company with her partner, Tam O'Shaughnessy. Sally Ride Science created fun science programs and books for kids. It especially focused on encouraging girls in science.
Sally also served on the committees that investigated two Space Shuttle accidents. These were the Challenger disaster and the Columbia disaster. She was the only person to be on both committees.
Personal Life
Sally Ride married fellow astronaut Steven Hawley in 1982. Their wedding was a small, private event. They were one of the first astronaut couples at NASA. Their marriage ended in 1987.
In 1985, Sally began a relationship with Tam O'Shaughnessy. They had known each other since they were young tennis players. Sally and Tam later lived together in California. They wrote six children's books about space. Their goal was to inspire kids to study science.
Death
Sally Ride passed away on July 23, 2012. She was 61 years old. She died from pancreatic cancer at her home in California. Her ashes were buried next to her father's. Her important papers are kept at the National Air and Space Museum.
Interesting Facts About Sally Ride
- Sally started playing tennis at age 9. She wanted to become a professional tennis player in college.
- She loved flying and earned a private pilot's license.
- Sally spent more than 343 hours in space during her missions.
- After her death, it was publicly shared that Tam O'Shaughnessy had been her partner for 27 years. This made Sally Ride the first known openly gay astronaut.
- In 1986, she published a children's book called To Space and Back. She wrote it with her friend, Sue Okie.
Sally Ride's Inspiring Quotes
- "Science is fun. Science is curiosity. Science is a process of investigating. It's posing questions and coming up with a method. It's delving in."
- "For whatever reason, I didn't succumb to the stereotype that science wasn't for girls. I got encouragement from my parents. I never ran into a teacher or a counselor who told me that science was for boys."
- "When you're getting ready to launch into space, you're sitting on a big explosion waiting to happen."
Awards and Special Honors
Sally Ride received many awards during her life and after her death.
- She won the National Space Society's von Braun Award.
- She was given the Lindbergh Eagle award.
- She received the NCAA's Theodore Roosevelt Award.
- Sally was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.
- She was also inducted into the Astronaut Hall of Fame.
- NASA awarded her the NASA Space Flight Medal twice.
- Several elementary schools in the United States are named after her.
- In 2006, she was inducted into the California Hall of Fame.
- In 2007, she joined the National Aviation Hall of Fame.
- In 2012, the Space Foundation gave her its highest honor, the General James E. Hill Lifetime Space Achievement Award.
- In 2013, the United States Navy named a research ship after her. The RV Sally Ride (AGOR-28) was the first research ship named after a female scientist.
- President Barack Obama announced that Sally Ride would receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom. This is the highest civilian award in the U.S. Her partner, Tam O'Shaughnessy, accepted the medal for her in 2013.
- In 2014, Sally was honored with a spot on the Legacy Walk in Chicago. This display celebrates LGBT history.
- In 2015, Google Doodle honored her on what would have been her 64th birthday.
- In 2018, the U.S. Postal Service issued a postage stamp honoring her.
- In 2022, Sally Ride appeared on one of the first American Women quarters coins. She was the first known openly gay person to appear on U.S. currency.
- A satellite launched in 2022 was named "Sally" in her honor.
- The Cygnus spacecraft for the NG-18 mission was named the S.S. Sally Ride in her honor. It launched in November 2022.
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See also
In Spanish: Sally Ride para niños
