Being selected for NASA was a tough job, as Sally was selected from thousands of other applicants. A total of 35 trainees were chosen – among them, six were women - and Sally Ride was one of the selected female candidates. The training session included parachute jumping, flight training, radio communications, and many other tests and objectives required to survive in space.
After the training, Sally was appointed as a capsule communicator during the second and third space shuttle missions in 1982. A year later, her dream of stepping in space came true, as she was chosen as the first American woman astronaut, being a part of the space shuttle Challenger that took off on 18 June, 1983. She was again selected for the 8-day mission in 1984 and created history by spending more than 343 hours in space. Many pharmaceutical experiments were conducted by Sally, and she was the first astronaut to use robotic arm in space.
Unfortunately for Ride, her third flight was suspended as a result of the Challenger disaster – the space shuttle exploded in 1986. Sally was appointed to investigate the accident and soon moved to NASA headquarters. There she became a NASA administrator of future space program planning. Sally Ride retired from NASA in 1987 and joined the University of California as a professor of physics. She has also been named Director of California's Space Institute, where she has encouraged many women to start their careers as astronauts.
