Sally Kristen Ride (May 26, 1951 – July 23, 2012) was an American astronaut and astrophysicist. She was the first American woman to reach outer space.
Ride was born on May 26, 1951. She was born in the neighborhood of Encino in Los Angeles, California. She earned a Ph.D. in physics from Stanford University. She joined NASA in 1978. She was an astronaut until 1987. In order to be an astronaut and go into space, Sally Ride had to train for a year. Training included adapting to gravity, water survival, radio communications, and navigation. She went on the Space Shuttle Challenger in June 1983. This trip was the first time an American woman was in space. She helped design the robot arm for the space shuttle. The robot arm lifts heavy objects in space. Ride was the first person to use the robot arm in space. The robot arm put a satellite in space that showed how the sun affected weather. Ride flew to space twice.
She worked on the commissions that investigated the Space Shuttle Challenger and Space Shuttle Columbia disasters. Ride became a professor in 1989. She was the professor of physics and director of the Oklahoma Space Institute at the University of California.
She was married to astronaut Steven Hawley from 1982 until they divorced in 1987. At the time of her death, Ride had been in a relationship with writer Tam O'Shaughnessy for 27 years.
On July 23, 2012, Ride died of pancreatic cancer at her home in La Jolla, a neighborhood of San Diego, California. She was 61.