Full name: Sally Kirsten Ride
Famous for: First American woman in space, third woman is Space
Birth date: May, the 26th 1951
Birth place: Los Angeles, California, USA
Father: Dale Ride
Mother: Joyce
Family: sister Karen
Attended space program: Janury 1978 (approved August 1979)
Pre-flight occupation: scientist, tennis player
Age at the first flight: 32
Rank at the first flight: Doctor of Physics
First mission name/code: STS-7
First mission date: June, the 19th, 1983
First mission vessel: Space Shuttle Challenger
Number of missions: 2
Second mission name/code: STS-41-G
Second mission date: October, the 5th, 1984
Second mission vessel: Space Shuttle Challenger
Total time in space: 14d, 07h, 46m
Missions canceled: 1 (1986 – Challenger disaster)
Space Exploration contribution: First American in space, using robot-arm in space, pharmaceutical experiments, satellite deployment
Space roles: mission specialist
Post-flight career (space-related): Challenger disaster presidential investigation commission member, Special Assistant to the Administrator for long range and strategic NASA planning
Education: B.Sc. in Physic 1973, B.A. in English 1973, M. Sc. in Physics 1975, Ph.D. in Physics 1978
Retired: 1997
Retired Rank: Ph.D. in Physics
Post-Space career: Professor of Physics at University of California since 1989, member of Columbia disaster investigation board (2003), Owner and CEO of Sally Ride Sciences (since 2001)
Marriage: Steve Hawley 1982, divorced 1987
Children: none
Honors: National Women Hall of Fame, Astronaut Hall of Fame, Jefferson Award for Public Service, two NASA Gold medals
Other achievements and positions: member of the Pacific Council on International Policy, member of National Research Council's Space Studies Board, has written numerous books on space
Named after her: Elementary school at The Woodlands (Texas, USA), Elementary school in Germantown (Maryland, USA)
