Sally RideDied 23 Jul 2012 at age 61 (born 26 May 1951).American astronaut who became the first American woman to orbit the earth when she flew aboard Space Shuttle Challenger on 18 Jun 1983. Only two women preceded her in space: Valentina Tereshkova (1963) and Svetlana Savitskaya (1982), both from the former Soviet Union. Ride applied to the astronaut program after reading an ad in a newspaper. Out of 8,000 applicants to the space program that year, 35 individuals were selected including six women. Accepted into the astronaut corps in 1978, she completed her training as a mission specialist in 1979, and flew on two missions with Challenger, the second in 1984. Dr. Ride, a Ph.D. physicist, was a member of the team chosen to investigate the 1986 explosion of Challenger. |
