Women's History Month--Honoring Sally Ride

When Sally Ride was a little girl, she played tennis so well that she received a tennis scholarship. She was ranked in the national juniors circuit, and dropped out of Swarthmore to pursue a career as a tennis pro. A few months later, however, she decided she wasn't good enough to be successful in tennis, so she gave up her pursuit and enrolled at Stanford. Ride had her Ph.D. in physics by the time she was 27.

Wanting to do post-doctoral work in astrophysics, Ride was one of 8,000 people who applied to the space program to become an astronaut. She and 34 others were chosen. Ride served as communications officer during the second and third flights of the space shuttle Columbia. In 1983, she became the first American woman to go into space when she was named to the Challenger STS-7 crew. She was also a crew member of the Challenger STS 41-G crew, and was preparing for her third mission when the Challenger exploded in 1986.

Ride was appointed to the presidential commission that investigated the accident, and became assistant to the NASA administrator for long-range planning. Ride retired from NASA in 1987 to become a science fellow at Center for National Security and Arms Control at Stanford. In 1989, she was named director of the California Space Institute and became a professor of physics at the University of California, San Diego. In the late 90's, she was president of space.com, and she founded and ran earthKAM.

Ride also founded Imaginary Lines to provide support for girls interested in science, math, and technology. One of the projects of Imaginary Lines is the Sally Ride Club for girls in upper elementary and middle school. Ride has also written a number of children's books.

One of the most endearing memories of Ride's first trip into space is that of shuttle launch onlookers holding signs that said Ride Sally Ride.