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Sally Kristen Ride (b. May 26, 1951) is a former
astronaut and the first United States|American
woman to reach outer space, in 1983. She was
preceded by two Soviet Union|Soviet women,
Valentina Tereshkova (1963) and Svetlana
Savitskaya (1982).



Ride was born in Encino, Los Angeles, California
and went to high school at Westlake School for
Girls in Los Angeles (now Harvard-Westlake
School). She initially attended Swarthmore College
but received her bachelor's degree|bachelor's
degrees (in English studies|English and physics)
from Stanford University in Palo Alto, California.
She eventually received a master's degree and a
Doctor of Philosophy|Ph.D. in physics at the same
institution, while doing research in astrophysics,
general relativity, and free-electron laser
physics.

Ride later joined NASA and in 1983 became the
first American woman in space as a crewmember on
Space Shuttle Space Shuttle Challenger|Challenger
for STS-7. Her second space flight was in 1984,
also on board the Challenger. She has cumulatively
spent more than 343 hours in space.

In 1987, Ride left NASA to work at the Stanford
University Center for International Security and
Arms Control|Stanford University Center for
International Security and Arms Control. In 1989,
she became a professor of physics at the
University of California, San Diego. She is
currently on leave from the university in order to
run Sally Ride Science, a company that creates
programs and publications for upper elementary and
middle school girls who are interested in science.

Ride is the only person to serve on both of the
panels investigating Shuttle accidents (those for
the STS-51-L|Challenger explosion and the Space
Shuttle Columbia disaster).

She occasionally appears on television, in shows
or commercials. She is the author of several
children's books about space exploration,
including: The Third Planet, Exploring Earth from
Space; To Space and Back; Voyager; and The Mystery
of Mars.

==See also==
* The Ride Report

==External links==
* http://www.lucidcafe.com/library/96may/ride.html
The most complete biography of Sally Ride.
*
http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/ride-sk.html
Her astronaut profile.
*
http://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/whos
_who_level2/ride.html And an address if you want
to write to her.
* http://www.sallyridescience.com Sally Ride
Science.