Born May 26, 1951,
Encino, California

Sally Ride never dreamed she would be the first American woman to fly in space. Her career as an astronaut began in 1977, when she answered a newspaper ad placed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which was soliciting applications from young scientists to serve as “mission specialists” on future space flights. After a long process of evaluation, Ride was accepted into the space program, which had previously recruited only male military test pilots.

Ride was not the first woman in space, however. A Russian woman, Valentina Tereshkova (see entry), had accompanied a team of astronauts as early as 1963; a second Russian, Svetlana Savitskaya, flew one year before Ride in 1982. But when Ride’s mission was successfully accomplished, she became one of the most respected women in the world and a symbol of hope and progress for American...