For Sally Ride, Being the First U.S. Woman in Space Was Just the Beginning
Jul 24, 2012
By Valerie Neal
Unlike many astronauts, Sally Kristen Ride did not dream of going into space since childhood. She was already in her mid-twenties, completing her Ph.D. in physics, when the idea dawned.
NASA was recruiting women to apply to become astronauts for a spacecraft that had not yet flown: the Space Shuttle. Ride was well prepared to seize the opportunity to become a scientist-astronaut in a new role called Mission Specialist. She had the academic credentials and the spirit to decide to apply. She was selected along with five other women scientists in 1978 The rest is history.
Some of NASA’s first female astronaut candidates—members of the 1978 astronaut class—take a break from training in Florida. From left: Sally Ride, Judith Resnik, Anna Fisher, Kathryn Sullivan, and Rhea Seddon.
Sally Ride soon became the first U.S. woman to fly in space. She first flew in 1983, on the seventh shuttle mission.
It was on that mission, in 1983, that she became the first American woman in space.
The Soviets had sent the first woman into orbit twenty years earlier during the Space Race. They claimed that first. Sally Ride’s flight was the start of something different—a steady presence of women going to work in space. Ride made her second flight in 1984, along with Kathryn Sullivan, the first U.S. woman to do a spacewalk. Since those historic missions, women have performed all roles in space as scientists, engineers, operators of the robotic arm (Ride was the first), spacewalkers, pilots, and commanders.
Sally Ride made her second flight on Sullivan’s first; the STS 41G crew was the first with two women.
Sally Ride’s career and legacy extended well beyond her missions in space.
- Twice she served on the commissions appointed to investigate the causes and recommend remedies after the tragic losses of the Challenger and Columbia crews.
- She led a strategic planning effort for NASA that yielded the 1987 report Leadership and America’s Future in Space.
- She served as the first chief of the new NASA Office of Exploration.
After leaving NASA in 1987, Dr. Sally Ride became a full-time physicist and educator. First she worked at the University of California and California Space Institute in San Diego. Later, she led independent initiatives as an author and founder of Sally Ride Science, an organization dedicated to improving science education and encouraging young people, especially girls, to study science.
Ride died in 2012. She remains a national icon of women’s achievement in science and space.
This was originally published in 2012 under the headline "Sally Ride (1951-2012)." It was updated in 2025 to with a new headline and to include more images. You can read the original version via the Internet Archive.
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