Sally Ride

by Dean Terry
On this day, in 1983, Astronaut Sally K. Ride became America’s first woman in space as she and four colleagues blasted off aboard the space shuttle Challenger.

Sally Ride was one of 8,900 people to answer an advertisement in a newspaper seeking applicants for the space program. As a result, Ride joined NASA in 1978.

During her career Sally was the Capsule Communicator for the second and third Space Shuttle flights and helped develop the Space Shuttle’s robot arm.

On June 18, 1983 she became the first American woman in space as a crewmember on Space Shuttle Challenger for, the 5-person crew deployed two communications satellites, conducted pharmaceutical experiments, and was the first to use the robot arm in space and the first to use the arm to retrieve a satellite.

Her second space flight was in 1984, also on board the Challenger. She has cumulatively spent more than 343 hours in space.

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