Sally Ride became the first American woman in space in 1983.

Lift-off is very exciting! There isn’t really time to be scared, but it’s exhilarating and sometimes overwhelming.

—Dr. Sally Ride, Female Frontiers QuestChat, March 23, 1999

As a child, Sally Ride’s dream was to be a professional tennis player. As an adult, she achieved something that many children dream of doing—she became an astronaut and orbited the Earth. Sally Ride entered the astronaut corps in 1978, one of only 35 people accepted out of over 8,000 applications, and was trained as a mission specialist. Her qualifications included a doctoral degree in physics. One of only six women accepted into NASA’s space program the year she applied, Ride became the first American woman in space when she blasted off aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger on this day in 1983. Ride flew on two space flights during her career at NASA, both aboard Challenger. During Ride’s second space flight, in October of 1984, one of the crew, Dr. Kathy Sullivan, became the first woman to walk in space. Ride’s planned third flight was cancelled after the Challenger exploded in January of 1986, and Ride served on the Presidential Commission that investigated the accident. In 1987, Ride left the astronaut corps to teach at Stanford University, hoping to encourage more women to pursue careers in science and engineering. She has written several books, including a children’s book titled To Space and Back.

Science NetLinks
Students can learn more about rockets such as the Challenger by comparing model rockets with real rockets in Rocket Launch (9–12).

In Systems 2: Systems, Up, Up and Away! (3–5), the second of a two-part series on systems, students design and test rockets, systematically changing design variables to identify those that optimize the system.

Sometimes, the inherent dangers of a space mission call for an unmanned solution. Make a Mission (6–8) revolves around the MESSENGER spacecraft mission to Mercury. (MESSENGER stands for MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging.) The focus of the lesson is technology—not only how it allows humans to collect scientific data and information on a faraway terrestrial planet, but also the constraints involved in designing the spacecraft to carry this technology.

EconEdLink
As part of the lesson Destination: Mars (3–5), in which students imagine all the preparation required in order to have a safe and successful mission to Mars, students explore the lives and careers of Dr. Sally Ride and Senator John Glenn.