LEGO® idea037 Sally Ride
Sally Ride was born in Los Angeles in 1951. While completing her PhD in physics at Stanford University, she read in a student newspaper that NASA was recruiting astronauts, and for the first time, women could apply. Ride was one of 8,000 applicants and one of six women selected by NASA in 1978.
While training for her first spaceflight, Ride endured intense media attention focused on her gender. She insisted on being treated the same as any other astronaut. On June 18, 1983, she blasted off aboard the space shuttle Challenger to become America’s first woman in space. During the flight, Ride used Challenger’s robotic arm to capture a satellite hurtling around Earth. Her historic flight made her a symbol of women’s ability to break barriers and an inspiration to generations of adventurous girls.
Ride flew aboard the Challenger again in 1984 and later led a task force that wrote an influential report on America’s future in space. After leaving NASA in 1987, she became a physics professor. She cowrote science books for young people and cofounded a company, Sally Ride Science, to inspire students in math and science.
Ride died in 2012. She was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
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