Sally Ride

Sally K. Ride is probably best known as the first American woman in space. The former NASA Astronaut is now president and chief executive of Sally Ride Science, and a professor of physics at the University of California, San Diego.

Sally Ride Science is a company dedicated to supporting girls' interests in math, science and technology. The company creates programs and publications to engage and encourage girls to pursue their interests.

Ride grew up in Los Angeles, Cal. She attended Stanford University where she earned undergraduate degrees in physics and English in 1973. She completed her master's and doctoral degrees in physics in 1975 and 1978, respectively. Shortly thereafter, she was selected for NASA's astronaut corps. Her first space flight was aboard the Challenger space shuttle in 1983; her second was also aboard Challenger in 1984.

During those flights, she deployed communications satellites, operated the robot arm, and conducted experiments. Training for her third space flight was interrupted by the Challenger accident.

Ride served as a member of the presidential commission investigating the accident, and chaired its subcommittee on operations. She then served as NASA's first director of strategic planning. She also created, and was the first director of, NASA's Office of Exploration.

In 1989, Ride joined the faculty at UCSD as a professor of physics and director of the University of California's California Space Institute. In 2001 she founded Sally Ride Science. An advocate for improved science education for many years, she has written five science books for children: To Space and Back, Voyager, The Third Planet, The Mystery of Mars and Exploring Our Solar System. She has also initiated and directed education projects designed to fuel middle school students' fascination with science.

Ride has been a member of the President's Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology and the National Research Council's Space Studies Board, and has served on the Boards of the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment, the Carnegie Institution of Washington, and the NCAA Foundation. She is a member of the Corporate Directors' Forum, and has served on the boards of Veridian and the Mitre Corp. Ride is a fellow of the American Physical Society, a member of the Pacific Council on International Policy, and currently serves on the boards of the Aerospace Corp. and of the California Institute of Technology. She is the only person to have served on the commissions investigating both the Challenger and Columbia accidents.

Ride has received numerous honors and awards. She has been inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame and the Astronaut Hall of Fame, and has received the Jefferson Award for Public Service, the von Braun Award, the Lindbergh Eagle, and the NCAA's Theodore Roosevelt Award. She has also twice been awarded the National Space Flight Medal.

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