what is sally ride known for besides being the first american woman in space?
Sally Kristen Ride was born on May 26, 1951 in Encino, California (near Los Angeles). Sally started playing tennis at age 10, and became an excellent tennis player. She won a tennis scholarship to Westlake School for Girls in Los Angeles. After graduation in 1968 she attended Swarthmore College, but dropped out to pursue a career in professional tennis. After three months of hard practice, Sally decided she was not good enough to become a successful pro. She quit tennis and enrolled at Stanford University. At 27, with B.A., B.S., and masters’ degrees, she was a Ph.D. candidate looking for postdoctoral work in astrophysics when she read about NASA’s call for astronauts in the Stanford University paper. More than 8,000 men and women applied to the space program that year. 35 were accepted, six of whom were women. One was Sally Ride. After joining NASA in 1977 Ride underwent extensive training that included parachute jumping, water survival, gravity and weightlessness training, radio comm
The first American woman in space: On June 18, 1983, the space shuttle Challenger lifted off with Sally Ride aboard. She was the first American woman in space. The youngest American in space: Besides being the first American woman in space, Sally Ride was also the youngest American when she rode the Challenger in 1983. Sources: http://space.about.com/cs/basics/a/spacefirsts.
