22 Quotes & Sayings By Sally Ride

Sally Kristen Ride was an American physicist and astronaut. She was the first American woman in space, one of the first Americans to travel to space twice, and the first American woman to chair a NASA commission. Ride served on the staff of the NASA Lewis Research Center responsible for developing launch vehicles and spacecraft for Project Gemini. She was also responsible for developing the Spacelab life science research module used on STS-7, STS-8, and STS-10 Read more

After STS-7, she was assigned to work for NASA's Office of Public Affairs as a press officer. In 1978, Ride became a member of the NASA Astronaut Office. That same year, she was selected as one of twelve astronauts from more than 7,000 applicants for NASA's new Space Shuttle program.

In 1984, Sally Ride became the first American woman in space when she flew as part of a joint U.S./Soviet mission aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger crewed by Guy Gardner and Paul Weitz. On June 12, 1986, Ride made her second space flight as a payload specialist aboard Challenger STS-51L. Her third spaceflight came in June 1989 as a crew member on STS-37 aboard Discovery which deployed two satellites for use in global positioning system (GPS) receivers.

She retired from NASA in July 1993 after serving as chief of the astronaut office at Johnson Space Center in Houston Texas then moved to Seattle Washington where she died on July 23rd 2015 from pancreatic cancer at the age of 61 years old

1
When you're getting ready to launch into space, you're sitting on a big explosion waiting to happen. Sally Ride
2
The stars don't look bigger, but they do look brighter. Sally Ride
3
So most astronauts getting ready to lift off are excited and very anxious and worried about that explosion - because if something goes wrong in the first seconds of launch, there's not very much you can do. Sally Ride
4
But even in elementary school and junior high, I was very interested in space and in the space program. Sally Ride
5
No, I think most astronauts recognize that the space shuttle program is very high-risk, and are prepared for accidents. Sally Ride
6
One thing I probably share with everyone else in the astronaut office is composure. Sally Ride
7
There are aspects of being the first woman in space that I'm not going to enjoy. Sally Ride
8
Rocket science is tough, and rockets have a way of failing. Sally Ride
9
Yes, I did feel a special responsibility to be the first American woman in space. Sally Ride
10
The space shuttle is a better and safer rocket than it was before the Challenger accident. Sally Ride
11
I slept just floating in the middle of the flight deck, the upper deck of the space shuttle. Sally Ride
12
I've discovered that half the people would love to go into space and there's no need to explain it to them. The other half can't understand and I couldn't explain it to them. If someone doesn't know why, I can't explain it. Sally Ride
13
The view of Earth is spectacular. Sally Ride
14
Science is fun. Science is curiosity. We all have natural curiosity. Science is a process of investigating. It's posing questions and coming up with a method. It's delving in. Sally Ride
15
For whatever reason, I didn't succumb to the stereotype that science wasn't for girls. I got encouragement from my parents. I never ran into a teacher or a counselor who told me that science was for boys. A lot of my friends did. Sally Ride
16
I liked math - that was my favorite subject - and I was very interested in astronomy and in physical science. Sally Ride
17
I think it's important for little girls growing up, and young women, to have one in every walk of life. So from that point of view, I'm proud to be a role model! Sally Ride
18
I did not come to NASA to make history. Sally Ride
19
Studying whether there's life on Mars or studying how the universe began, there's something magical about pushing back the frontiers of knowledge. That's something that is almost part of being human, and I'm certain that will continue. Sally Ride
20
All adventures, especially into new territory, are scary. Sally Ride
21
For a long time, society put obstacles in the way of women who wanted to enter the sciences. Sally Ride