Astronaut Sally Ride is pictured on the space shuttle Challenger's middeck during the STS-7 mission.
Sally Ride in an official NASA portrait.
The first U.S. woman in space, Sally Ride, monitors control panels from the pilot's chair on the Flight Deck of the STS-7 mission.
Inflight view of the crew of the STS-7 mission. In the rear from left to right are Astronauts Robert L. Crippen, crew commander; Frederick H. Hauck, pilot; and John M. Fabian, mission specialist. In front are Drs. Sally K. Ride and Norman E. Thagard, mission specialists.
Two members of the STS-7 crew, mission specialist Sally Ride and pilot Frederick Hauck, go over procedures in operating the remote manipulator system at the Johnson Space Center.
Astronaut Sally K. Ride, mission specialist for STS-7, standing outside of the Shuttle Mission Simulator (SMS) on May 27, 1983. She is wearing the shuttle blue flight suit.
Members of the STS-7 crew are pictured during a training session.
Astronaut Sally K. Ride goes over post-flight data from STS-3 during a crew debriefing session at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Astronaut Sally Ride at the CapCom console during STS-2 simulation.
Astronaut Sally Ride, mission specialist for the STS-7 mission, responds to a question from an interviewer during a taping session for ABC's Night Line.
The STS-41G crew. In the lead is mission specialist Kathryn Sullivan. Behind her is commander Robert Crippen and mission specialist Sally Ride. Behind Crippen and Ride are payload specialist Paul Scully-Power and mission specialist David Leestma. Behind them are pilot Jon McBride and payload specialist Marc Garneau.
America's first woman astronaut talks climate change with the help of satellite imagery. Credit: NASA/JPL
Former astronaut Sally Ride talks to young women at the Sally Ride Science Festival, held at the University of Central Florida, Orlando, Fla., in 2003.
Astronaut Sally Ride is seated in the cockpit of a T-38 aircraft in preparation to depart for the Kennedy Space Center ahead of the STS-41G mission.
Astronaut Sally Ride stands outside of the shuttle mission simulator after a training session for the STS-7 mission.
This is a montage of the individual portraits of the 35-member 1978 class of astronaut candidates. The image was created January 1978.
Seen on the flight deck of the space shuttle Challenger, astronaut Sally K. Ride, STS-7 mission specialist, became the first American woman in space on June 18, 1983.
Astronaut Sally K. Ride, STS-7 mission specialist, performs a number of functions simultaneously, proving the necessity for versatility and dexterity in space travel. This image was taken on June 21, 1983.
Astronaut Sally K. Ride, STS-7 mission specialist, displays the array of tools at her disposal on the mid deck of the Earth-orbiting Space Shuttle Challenger. The image was taken in June 1983.
Astronaut Sally K. Ride, STS-7 mission specialist, communicates with ground controllers from the mid deck of the Earth-orbiting Space Shuttle Challenger. This image was taken in June 1983.
Astronaut Robert L. Crippen, STS-7 commander, used a 35mm camera to expose this frame of the four representatives of the "thirty five new guys" onboard the Earth-orbiting Space Shuttle Challenger. This image was taken in JUne 1983.
Astronaut Sally K. Ride, STS-7 mission specialist, takes one last look at familiar training environs before taking off from NASA’s Houston facility in a T-38 jet aircraft, destination: Florida and the Kennedy Space Center (KSC). This image was taken June 15, 1983.
Astronaut Sally K. Ride (left) participates in a mission sequence test in preparation for STS-7, in the Kennedy Space Center’s (KSC) vertical processing facility (VPF). This image was taken May 5, 1983.
Astronaut Sally K. Ride, mission specialist for STS-7, scheduled for June 1983, records some of the pre-launch activity for STS-6 on 35mm film at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC). This image was taken April 4, 1983.
Astronauts Kathryn D. Sullivan, left, and Sally K. Ride show off what appears to be a "bag of worms", a product of their creativity. The "bag" is a sleep restraint and the majority of the "worms" are springs and clips used with the sleep restraint in its normal application. This image was taken in October 1984.
