RIP Sally Ride, the First American Woman In Space [Space]
Pioneering American astronaut Sally Ride died today after a battle with pancreatic cancer. She was 61. In 1983, she became the first American woman to travel to space. But that's not all. At 32 she was the youngest American to have travelled to space at all at that time. What an incredible life. Our condolences go out to her friends and family. Sally Kristen Ride was born in Encino, Los Angeles, California in 1951. She attended the prestigious Harvard-Westlake school on a scholarship, and graduated from Stanford University with degrees in English and Physics. As she was finishing her Ph.D in physics she saw an advertisement that said NASA was seeking astronauts. Ride applied for the job, and was amongst 35 new astronauts hired by NASA in 1978—six of them were women. After serving on the ground-based crew for several missions, Ride was tapped to go up into space herself. Until that point most astronauts were usually military pilots that were used to extremely dangerous situations. ...