Introduction

Blast off! I was way up in the air after those words because the space shuttle I was on, the Challenger, was just launched from the Kennedy space Center in Florida. It was a great day for women’s rights because that day, June 18, 1983, I became the first American woman in space. It took a long time to get there, too.

Early Interests

I was born Sally Ride on May 26, 1951 in Los Angeles, California. When I was nine, my family spent the year traveling in Europe. It was a lot of fun to explore foreign countries. When we came back, I moved up a grade. Then, I got interested in tennis. Alice Marble, a four time national women’s tennis champion, trained me. My tennis skills earned me a scholarship to Westlake School for Girls. I became very interested in science at Westlake. My interest in science led to an interest in space travel and the stars. After graduating from Westlake, I went to Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania where I studies science and math. Astronomy and physics were my favorite subjects. These two subjects would help me a lot in the future. I got homesick after a year and a half, though, so I transferred to Stanford University in California. I realized I could be a better space scientist than I could a professional tennis player. When I graduated from Stanford, I had received a Bachelor of Science degree, a Bachelor of Arts degree, and a Master of Science degree. After graduating from college, I saw an advertisement in the newspaper saying that NASA wanted astronauts for the new space shuttle program. I decided to apply.

In Training

On January 16, 1978, I got a call telling me that I had been chosen as one of the new astronauts. NASA announced that thirty-four other people and I, including John Fabian who would accompany me on the Challenger, would go into training. For the first year, we weren’t astronauts. We were astronaut candidates. I was training as a mission specialist which is an astronaut who conducts experiments in space. When I was training, I loved to fly the T-38 training jet.

Being an Astronaut

In 1979, I became a real astronaut. Now I could be assigned to a space flight. When I was assigned to the engineering team, I helped build the remote manipulator arm which is a giant arm that moves satellites in space. The remote manipulator arm is attached to a space shuttle. This was good practice for me because I would be using the remote manipulator arm to move satellites when I went in space on the Challenger. In 1981, I was the first woman capsule communicator, or capcom. The capcom is the only person on Earth who can talk to people in space. This would give me good experience for when I would go up in space. It would help me because I would be able to hear and make a picture in my mind of what it would be like to go into space. Then, in April of 1982, NASA announced the four astronauts who would go aboard the Challenger in 1983. Both John Fabian, who was an astronaut candidate with me, and I were picked. The two others picked were co-pilot, Rick Hauck, and commander, Bob Crippen. Dr. Norman Thagard, a doctor who would study people’s health in space, was picked to be aboard the Challenger, too. I was going to be the first American woman in space! I was also America’s youngest astronaut in space at 32 years old.

My First Flight

On June 18, 1983, I walked aboard the Challenger where thousands of people were waving banners saying, "Ride, Sally Ride." In space, we launched two satellites on the Challenger’s seventh out of 45 orbits around the Earth. The first one, Anik-C, was a Canadian communications satellite. Anik-C would relay pictures, voice, and information services throughout Canada. The second, Palapa-B, was another communications satellite that was from the Republic of Indonesia. Our mission was a big success. The flight on the Challenger took six days, two hours, and 24 minutes.

After My First Flight

I went back into space again in 1984. This time I helped launch a satellite that would help scientists make better long-range weather forecasts. I also helped study the Earth from space. In 1987, I resigned from NASA. In 1989, I became a professor of physics at the University of California and worked part time as a director of the California Space Institute. I am continuing to do both these jobs in 1998.

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