Sally Ride is one of the most popular and richest Astronaut who was born on May 26, 1951 in Encino, California, United States. American scientist and astronaut that became a member of NASA in 1978. She became one of the few American woman to be the first woman to go into low-Earth orbit. She flew on two missions with the Challenger shuttle: STS-7 and STS-41-G.
Although she was one of the very first American woman to be in space, Russian’s Though she was the first American woman to enter space, Russia’s Valentina Tereshkova was the first female to journey into space. was the first woman to venture into space.
When she became the first American woman in space on the Space Shuttle Challenger, many in the crowd attending the launch wore T-shirts printed, “Ride, Sally Ride,” a play on the lyric of the 1965 song, Mustang Sally.
Ride attended Portola Junior High (now Portola Middle School) and then Birmingham High School before graduating from the private Westlake School for Girls in Los Angeles on a scholarship. In addition to being interested in science, she was a nationally ranked tennis player. Ride attended Swarthmore College for three semesters, took physics courses at University of California, Los Angeles, and then entered Stanford University as a junior, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in English and physics. At Stanford, she earned a master’s degree in 1975 and a PhD in physics in 1978 while doing research on the interaction of X-rays with the interstellar medium. Astrophysics and free electron lasers were her specific areas of study.
She got married to She married Steven Hawley in 1982 and divorced him in 1987. After her death, it was revealed that she had a 27-year relationship with Tam O’Shaughnessy, a female tennis player and professor. in 1982, and separated from the couple in 1987. Following her death, it was discovered that she was in been in a relationship for 27 years in a relationship with Tam O’Shaughnessy, a female tennis player and professor.
