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Ride Sally Ride – R.I.P.
Source WIKIPEDIA
Sally Ride, the first American woman to fly in space, died, at the age of 61, Monday after a 17-month battle with pancreatic cancer.
A true American hero.
Ride was one of 8,000 people to answer an advertisement in a newspaper seeking applicants for the space program. As a result, she joined NASA in 1978.
During her career, Ride served as the ground-based Capsule Communicator (CapCom) for the second and third Space Shuttle flights (STS-2 and STS-3) and helped develop the Space Shuttle’s robot arm. On June 18, 1983, she became the first American woman in space as a crew member on Space Shuttle Challenger for STS-7. (She was preceded by two Soviet women, Valentina Tereshkova in 1963 and Svetlana Savitskaya in 1982.) On STS-7, during which the five-person crew deployed two communications satellites and conducted pharmaceutical experiments, Ride was the first woman to use the robot arm in space and the first to use the arm to retrieve a satellite.
Her second space flight was in 1984, also on board the Challenger. She spent a total of more than 343 hours in space.
Ride, who had completed eight months of training for her third flight when the Space Shuttle Challenger accident occurred, was named to the presidential commission investigating the accident and headed its subcommittee on operations. Following the investigation, Ride was assigned to NASA headquarters in Washington, DC, where she led NASA’s first strategic planning effort, authored a report entitled “Leadership and America’s Future in Space”, and founded NASA’s Office of Exploration.
1983 aboard the Space Shuttle
Milwaukee Mike
July 23rd, 2012
An American pioneer. RIP
Menderman
July 23rd, 2012
She is the hottest woman that ever went to space, and she did that on her own…nobody else made that happen.
Godspeed on this journey as well Sally Ride.
Bad Brad
July 23rd, 2012
Winner. She set a high standard. God’s speed.
Weldor
July 23rd, 2012
Requiscat in pace, Sally.
I lost a lady friend to pancreatic c a few years ago…
I know you didn’t swing my way, but I always thought you were way hot.
We are diminished.
Rightwingfeather
July 23rd, 2012
Aw. God bless you Sally Ride.
You inspired a generation. And as a member of that generation I will look to the stars that punctuate the night and thank you.
Ricky
July 24th, 2012
Such a wonderful woman, she did not deserve such a horrible and painful death with pancreatic cancer.
John Cooper
July 24th, 2012
All these years and I had no idea she was a lesbian. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/23/sally-ride-first-american-woman-female-partner-_n_1696537.html
Lady in Red
July 24th, 2012
Get me rewrite! Get me IOTW rewrite!
From the London Telegraph:
“In an obituary on her website, Sally Ride publicly outed herself as homosexual for the first time, naming her partner of 27-years as Tam O’Shaughnessy.
“Ride’s sister and a spokesman for Sally Ride Science, the organisation led by Ride and O’Shaughnessy, later reportedly confirmed that Ride was gay.
“‘I hope it makes it easier for kids growing up gay that they know that another one of their heroes was like them,’ Sally Ride’s sister, Bear Ride…”
Stirrin the B.S.
July 24th, 2012
@LIR –
“….Get me rewrite! Get me IOTW rewrite!….”
WTF???
Lowell
July 24th, 2012
I admired the hell out of that woman from when I first heard she had made the cut. I followed her career, and kept up with what she was doing. She amazed me. Rest in Peace Sally, you did good.
just plain bob
July 24th, 2012
the difference that her outing makes is NONE. She was one of the enlightened ones who realized that her sexuality had no bearing on her her public life. She wasn’t a Great American because she was a lesbian; She is a Great American who happens to be a lesbian