Sally Ride

Sally Ride (26 May 1951 – 23 July 2012) 

Sally Ride was a trailblazing astronaut. An elite athlete. An author, an advocate, and a brilliant physicist. “Sally was an inspiration to countless women,” said NASA Deputy Administrator and former astronaut, Pam Melroy. “The girls and young women of that era saw a woman breaking the ultimate glass ceiling. She was more than just history.” 

The Ride sisters grew up in the 1950s/60s, a time when it wasn’t popular for girls to be athletes or pursue careers in science and maths. But her parents fully supported their daughters’ interests. While working on her Ph.D. in physics at Stanford University, Sally Ride read in the student newspaper that NASA was accepting applications for astronaut candidates. And for the first time, women could apply. 

Ride shattered the nation’s gender barrier in human spaceflight on 18 June 1983, as part of NASA’s five-person crew aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger. At age 32, she also was the youngest American to travel in space. In addition to her pioneering flight, Sally Ride flew aboard Challenger in 1984 and was training for a third mission in 1986 before the Challenger tragedy that year.  

After her NASA career, Ride continued to be an advocate for inclusion in STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) fields – particularly for girls and young women – and an influential voice in national space policy. She spent 30 years as a professor, teaching physics at the University of California-San Diego. And she adored speaking with kids and realised she could use her experience to excite kits about STEM. In 2013, Sally Ride posthumously received the nation’s highest civilian honour – the Presidential Medal of Freedom.