When was Sally Ride born and where did she grow up?
Sally Kristen Ride was born on the 26th of May 1951 in the Encino neighborhood of Los Angeles. She grew up playing tennis and received coaching from Alice Marble by age 10.
Sally Kristen Ride was born on the 26th of May 1951 in the Encino neighborhood of Los Angeles. She grew up playing tennis and received coaching from Alice Marble by age 10.
Ride applied to NASA after seeing an article about women recruitment in January 1977 and became one of 35 selected candidates in Astronaut Group 8 on the 16th of January 1978. Her application was one of 8,079 submissions received by the 30th of June 1977 deadline.
The STS-7 mission lifted off from Kennedy Space Center on the 18th of June 1983 making Ride the first American woman to fly in space. The mission lasted 6 days, 2 hours, 23 minutes and 59 seconds while deploying communications satellites Anik C2 and Palapa B1.
Ride announced leaving NASA in May 1987 to take up a fellowship at Stanford University Center for International Security and Arms Control commencing the 15th of August 1987. She later became professor of physics at University of California San Diego earning $64,000 plus a $6,000 stipend as director of Cal Space on the 1st of July 1989.
Ride died the 23rd of July 2012 at age 61 at home in La Jolla following treatment for pancreatic cancer diagnosed earlier that year. Her obituary publicly revealed Tam O'Shaughnessy had been her partner for 27 years making her first known LGBT astronaut.