Sally Ride
Sally Ride
Sally Kristen Ridewas an American physicist and astronaut. Born in Los Angeles, she joined NASA in 1978 and became the first American woman in space in 1983. She remains the youngest American astronaut to have traveled to space, having done so at the age of 32. After flying twice on the Orbiter Challenger, she left NASA in 1987. She worked for two years at Stanford University's Center for International Security and Arms Control, then at the University of California, San...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionAstronaut
Date of Birth26 May 1951
CityLos Angeles, CA
CountryUnited States of America
I was always very interested in science, and I knew that for me, science was a better long-term career than tennis.
I think eventually private enterprise will be able to send people into orbit, but I suspect initially it's going to have to be with NASA's help.
Different astronauts sleep in different ways.
For a long time, society put obstacles in the way of women who wanted to enter the sciences.
Because I was a tennis player, Billie Jean King was a hero of mine.
Even though NASA tries to simulate launch, and we practice in simulators, it's not the same - it's not even close to the same.
Some astronauts sleep in sort of beds - compartments that you can open up and crawl into and then close up, almost like a little bedroom.
The astronauts who came in with me in my astronaut class - my class had 29 men and 6 women - those men were all very used to working with women.
The space shuttle is a better and safer rocket than it was before the Challenger accident.
I find myself looking around for other new, interesting opportunities to dive into.
The view of Earth is spectacular.
On both of my flights, everything went very well.
So I saw many planets, and they looked just a little bit brighter than they do from Earth.
Then during the mission itself, I used the space shuttle's robot arm to release a satellite into orbit.