NASA Photo/Alamy Stock Photo (Sally Ride); all illustrations by Berat Pekmezci

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Sally Ride

On May 5, 1961, Alan Shepard became the first American to travel to space. Dozens of other U.S. astronauts rocketed beyond Earth over the next two decades. All of them were men. On June 18, 1983, Sally Ride broke that barrier. She blasted into history aboard the space shuttle Challenger, leading the way for other women to reach for the stars. 

“For many girls, seeing her fly into space was inspirational because they hadn’t thought about that as a career,” says Jennifer Ross-Nazzal. She’s a historian at NASA, the U.S. space agency. 

Sally Ride: First American Woman in Space
Watch a video interview with astronaut Sally Ride.

Big Dreams

Ride was born on May 26, 1951, in Encino, California. Growing up, she excelled at tennis and went on to play in college. Her other great passion was science. 

“I was fascinated by whether there might be life on Mars,” Ride told Scholastic News in 2008. “I was fascinated by the stars.” 

Ride eventually chose science over tennis. At the time, that wasn’t a common career path for a woman. In 1970, women held only 7 percent of the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) jobs in the U.S.

Still, Ride was determined to follow her dream. By 1977, she had earned three college degrees from Stanford University. She was working on a fourth when she saw an ad in the school newspaper. NASA was looking for new astronauts—and for the first time, women could apply.

“I always dreamed of going into space,” Ride said. “The moment I had that chance, I jumped at it.”

More than 8,000 people applied, and only 35 were selected for astronaut training. Ride was one of the six women chosen.

Space Frontiers/Archive Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

As part of her astronaut training, Sally Ride learned to fly a U.S. Air Force jet.

To Space and Beyond

In April 1982, NASA announced that Ride would be a mission specialist on its seventh space shuttle voyage. Ride received a lot of attention in the year leading up to the mission. Reporters asked her insulting questions that they didn’t ask the male crew members. They wanted to know if she planned to bring makeup to space and if she cried when things went wrong. 

But through it all, Ride kept her calm and stayed focused on her job. Aboard Challenger, she and the other crew members conducted experiments. Ride also successfully launched and retrieved, or brought back, a satellite using a robotic arm.

“She demonstrated on her mission just how capable a woman could be,” says Ross-Nazzal.

Ride returned to space aboard Challenger in 1984. She and fellow astronaut Kathryn Sullivan became the first American women to be part of the same crew. Since then, more than 50 other American women have become astronauts.

A STEM Superstar

Ride later became a college professor and wrote several books for kids about space. She also started Sally Ride Science, an organization that encourages girls to pursue careers in STEM. Ride, who died in 2012, was proud to be a trailblazer. 

“You need to have that first person walk through the door before other people can follow them,” she said. “It meant a lot to me to be that role model and to be able to break that barrier for women and for young girls.”

Historic Ride

Here’s a look at Sally Ride’s first flight on the space shuttle Challenger.

June 18, 1983: Kennedy Space Center, Florida: The crew begins its trip to the launchpad.


A crowd gathers to watch the historic moment.


The crew prepares for takeoff. Challenger blasts off.


Ride spends six days on the shuttle, orbiting Earth. 


1. In your own words, what is a barrier? What barrier did Sally Ride break?

2. NASA historian Jennifer Ross-Nazzal says that Ride “demonstrated on her mission just how capable a woman could be.” How did Ride do this?

3. What are the main ideas of the section “A STEM Superstar”?

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