Sally Ride
Sally Ride was born on May 26, 1951. She was the first American woman to fly in
space. She was born in Los Angeles, California and continues to live there. She loved to
study science and play sports when she was in school. Sally always dreamed of becoming a
professional tennis player. She never thought of becoming an astronaut. Her father was a
teacher at a college. Her mother was a volunteer and her sister became a minister. Sally
Ride grew up in a home where she was always encouraged to try her best.
When she decided against her tennis dreamed, she went to Stanford University and got a
degree in physics and English. Then she even got a Ph.D. in Astrophysics. In 1977, she
answered a special ad for NASA. They were looking for young scientists to ride a space
shuttle. Thousands of people applied, but Sally was picked. She worked as mission
specialist on the Challenger mission. Then in 1987 she went back to Stanford for
International Security and Arms Control.
People today remember Sally Ride in many ways. They write books about her and people in
school do reports on her.
Achievements
Sally Ride made many achievements. She was the first woman to go into space. She was on
the Challenger three times. Sally Ride became an astronaut with seven other women. There
were 8,000 applicants and 1,000 women applied for the position. Sally was lucky enough and
good enough to win it. Sally also achieved in school. She studied physics and earned a
Ph.D. in astrophysics before joining NASA.
A Letter to the Students
I think you should do a book report on Sally Ride because there is a lot of interesting
facts about her. If you do decide to write a report on her and read books about her, you
will find out things that are amazing. Sally was a very good astronaut, so you should read
a book about her or do a report on her for fun.
Interesting Facts
Sally Ride was smart in many very special ways. Her lifelong dream was not to be an
astronaut, instead to be a professional tennis player. She had loved to study science and
loved tennis and Shakespeare. Sometimes she would play baseball and football with the
neighborhood boys, like a tomboy. Sally Ride went to space
three times, all of her trips were on the Challenger. Sally Ride is a great person.
http://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/whos_who_level2/ride.html
http://www.gale.com/gale/cwh/rides.html
http://www2.lucidcafe.com/lucidcafe/library/96may/ride.html
image courtesy of NASA
by Carolyn & Shalexis, fourth grade, 1999
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