First American woman in spaceIn 1983, at 7:33 am EDT, Space Shuttle Challenger was launched on its own second flight. This was the seventh shuttle mission, and the first to carry a woman crew member. Sally K. Ride, mission specialist, became America's first woman in space. During the mission, two communications satellites deployed (ANIK C-2 for TELESAT Canada and PALAPA-B1 for Indonesia). Canisters in the cargo bay held variety of experiments including ones studying effects of space on social behavior of ant colony in zero gravity. Ten experiments mounted on Shuttle Pallet Satellite (SPAS-01) performed research in forming metal alloys in microgravity and use of remote sensing scanner. |
