Biography:

Sally Kristen Ride was born in Los Angeles, California, on May 26, 1951. She was
the daughter of Date Ride and Joyce Ride. Karen Ride was her younger sister. Sally
was invited to play tennis when she was a child. The coach she had was named
Alice Marble, and she quickly became attached to tennis. Tennis was such a
vigorous sport that she won a national title for 12 and under girls in Southern
California. She attended Birmingham High School during her teenage years. She
graduated from Birmingham High School in 1968. After graduating, Sally Ride
applied to Swarthmore College. Administrator Fred Hargadon interviewed her and
was impressed by Sally's abilities, and she was admitted on a full scholarship in
1968. Intercollegiate tennis was another sport she participated in, as well. She also
became the Eastern Intercollegiate Women's Singles champion as well. Then three
semesters after Swarthmore College, Sally went back to California in 1970. There
she attended the University of California, Los Angeles. After a couple of years of
studying Quantum Mechanics and Shakespeare, she went to Stanford University.
They quickly admitted her to see her exceptional abilities. Finally, she graduated in
1973 with a bachelor's degree in Science, and a bachelor's degree in Arts. Then
finally in 1977, she applied for NASA. They wanted to recruit women for their
upcoming space shuttle. The doctors were very impressed to see her fitness. Finally,
in January she was one of the crew members. She went on the Challengers Space
Shuttle -7. She stayed there for 6 days, 2 hours, 23 minutes, and 59 seconds. Ride
went on another trip to space, this time it was in STS-41-G.
Her Influence:
After Sally Ride’s retirement, she influenced many young girls and helped girls
have new careers. She was a very influential person. Back then it wasn’t very
popular for women to go into space. She helped launch so many satellites into
space, also while sending into space some other air crafts. When Ride was about
to retire from NASA she saw that not many girls were going to the science and
engineering field. So, she developed her program SRS, which stands for “Sally
Ride Sciences.” After her new company launched, several girls wanted to go to
this program. This influenced a generation of people. Now not only were boys,
but it was also girls who were merely inspired to go to the science and
engineering field. If it weren’t for Sally Ride to open doors for these young girls,
who would have had the idea to do it in the first place. In 2002 Ride said, “ Now
people don't notice there are women going up on space shuttle flights, it’s
happening all the time.”