Astronaut Sally Ride’s battle with cancer ended today (July 23). The California physicist and first U.S. woman to fly in space was 61.
Ride was part of the first astronaut class to include woman in 1978. When she broke through the macho, test pilot barrier to fly on a space shuttle crew in June 1983, President Ronald Reagan told her that “sometimes the best man for the job is a woman.”
Ride later said the reality of what was happening on her first shuttle flight didn’t hit her until the hatch was closed and she awaited the launch. “I realized, oh my God, this is really going to happen.” Ride would fly twice on the shuttle. She also performed the grim tasks of helping to investigate two shuttle accidents.
