MAY 26

In 1983, Sally Ride became the first American woman in space.  At 32 years old, she was also the youngest!  When Ride was set to launch into space, many onlookers wore shirts that read, "Ride, Sally Ride!"  This was in reference to lyrics of a song by Wilson Pickett, titled Mustang Sally.

Ride was not the first woman in space, but the third.  The first was a Russian cosmonaut named Valentina Threshkova, who orbited the earth for three days starting on June 16, 1963 (Sally Ride was 12 years old at the time).  She is still alive today, and serves as a member of Parliament in Russia.  The second woman was a Russian cosmonaut, Svetlana Savitskaya, who flew in 1982, and is also now a politician.

On January 28, 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after lift off, killing all seven crew members aboard.  At the time of the disaster, Sally Ride was training for her next mission to space - aboard the Challenger on July 22, 1986.  This mission was cancelled and was never rescheduled.

Ride was named to the Challenger presidential commission to investigate the disaster.  It was revealed after her death that she was the person to discover the design flaw with a component called the O-ring.  This was the main contributing factor to the tragic explosion.  Ride would serve on the Columbia presidential commission that investigated the disaster after its disintegration upon re-entry to earth on February 1, 2003.  She is the only person to have served in both investigations.  

You can learn more about Sally Ride by reading the many books about her, including Who Was Sally Ride?  You can also explore Sally Ride Science at the University of California at San Diego, an organization that promotes math and science for children.  If you need to mail a letter, you can have her guide it through the journey by using a Sally Ride postage stamp (released in 2018 and still available).  You can even play with Sally Ride because she was made into both a LEGO and a Barbie Doll.

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