Happy birthday to Sally Ride (1951-2012) on what would have been her 70th birthday on May 26, 2021!
Sally was an astronaut, physicist, and engineer. When Sally applied to the astronaut program there were 8,000 applicants. Thirty-five were chosen. Six were women. And in 1983, she became the first American woman in space–the third woman after cosmonauts Valentina Tereshkova and Svetlana Savitskaya.
She was also a professor of physics and is known for sitting on committees that studied the Challenger and Columbia space shuttle disasters. She received many honors including the Von Braun Award, induction into the National Women’s Hall of Fame, and the NASA Space Flight Medal–Twice! (Image Credit: NASA)
“I didn’t succumb to the stereotype that science wasn’t for girls.” – Sally Ride, First American Woman in Space.
Image credit: NASA
