Sally Ride

American astronaut, one of a five-member crew and America's first woman in space on the Challenger on 18 June 1983. Ride was one of 1,000 women and 7,000 men who applied for 35 available slots in the astronaut class of 1978. Her powers of concentration and logic stood out from the crowd. Her training consisted of becoming a proficient jet pilot and flight engineer. Ride was able to solve quadratic equations in her head. The media spotlight on the first American woman in space made the astronaut extremely uncomfortable. She despised the intrusive nature and personal questions posed to her by the press. Private and thoughtful, Ride set her own barriers from the press, refusing to offer information about her personal life.

In a family of four in suburban Encino, CA, Ride was the eldest of two daughters. Her father, Dale Ride, taught political science at Santa Monica College. Her mother, Joyce, taught English as a second language in school. Ride and her sister "Bear" was raised by loving, unobtrusive parents though she learned from her mother a disdain for cooking and housework. Dinner might consist of a meal of crackers, nuts or cheese, whatever the family member wanted to fix for themselves, independent of others. She was a gifted athlete as a child. At 18, Ride ranked nationally in the amateur teen tennis championship though her parents and coach felt she lacked the killer instinct for professional sports. Ride played tennis in order to avoid going to the Presbyterian Church on Sunday. She attended the prestigious private school, Westlake High School for girls on a partial scholarship.

In her junior year, Ride discovered science when UCLA professor Elizabeth Mommaerts taught physiology at the school. For the first time Ride saw logic personified as clear-thinking. She became hooked on science and became great friends with Mommaerts. It was a heavy blow when Professor Elizabeth Mommaerts committed suicide in 1972.