HEROESOF SPACE
SALLY RIDE
NASA’s first female astronaut was also the youngest American to make the flight
In 1983, Ride broke the gender barrier when she became the first American woman in history to venture where only men had gone before.
Soft-spoken and celebrity-shy, she was an unassuming hero to people around the globe, proving that boundaries were there to be broken.
Dr Sally Kristen Ride was born in Encino, California, on 26 May 1951. She had an early interest in science and was also a nationally ranked tennis player, but after graduating with a bachelor’s degree in English and physics and later a PhD in physics from Stanford University in 1975 and 1978 respectively, she focused her attention solely on science, and specifically space.