Sally Ride was the third woman to go into space, and the first American female astronaut
In 1983, American astronaut Sally Ride made history as the third woman to go into space.
She followed in the footsteps of Russian cosmonauts Valentina Tereshkova, who made history 20 years earlier in 1963, and Svetlana Savitskaya, who served on a mission in 1982.
Ride was a member of the crew of the Challenger space shuttle for its STS-7 mission, which saw it deploy several satellites and the first Shuttle Pallet Satellite. She made a second trip into space the following year. Altogether, she spent a total of 343 hours in space across her two missions.
It was not until her death from cancer in 2012 that it became publicly known that Ride was in a long-term same-sex relationship.
Her obituary revealed that she had been with her partner, Tam O’Shaughnessy, since 1985. This made Ride one of the first known LGBTQ+ individuals to have flown in space.
At university, Ride obtained both a Bachelor of Science in physics and a Bachelor of Arts in literature. She went on to earn a Master of Science in physics and a doctorate.
After her time at NASA, she worked at Stanford University and later at the University of California, San Diego. She served on committees that investigated the loss of the Challenger and Columbia space shuttles – she was the only person to serve on both investigations.
President Bill Clinton offered Ride the position of NASA Administrator, but she turned it down, not wanting to leave her home in California. She did, however, accept a position on the President’s Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology.
Sally Ride has been remembered in many ways. Two high schools are named after her, and a science award bears her name. The United States Navy named a research vessel after her – the RV Sally Ride was launched in 2016.
In 2013, she was posthumously awarded the USA’s highest civilian honour, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She has been featured on coins and postage stamps and even had a Google Doodle in her honour.
Janelle Monáe wrote a song called Sally Ride, and she is mentioned in Billy Joel’s song We Didn’t Start the Fire. Playwright Liza Birkenmeier wrote a play that features Ride as a character, and Mattel released a Barbie doll version of the astronaut as part of its “Inspiring Women” series. In 2022, a Cygnus spacecraft used for a space mission was named the S.S. Sally Ride.
In 2024, it was announced that Kristen Stewart would play Ride in an upcoming television series about her life titled The Challenger, and Disney Plus has released a documentary titled Sally.
