THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Ride the Glass Ceiling of Space

Sally Ride becomes the first American astronaut in space

Astronaut Sally Ride broke the glass ceiling on June 18, 1983 when she became the first female astronaut in space on the space shuttle Challenger. She was also the youngest American astronaut, at age 32.

It was a bittersweet experience for Ride, a highly trained astronaut. She fully embraced women being in the space program. As she prepared for take off from Earth, fans supported her with tee shirts with “Ride, Sally Ride” on the front. This is a reference to the song “Mustang Sally,” which later became a bit of an anthem for her.

But there was also humiliation from the media, who asked her patriarchy based questions about the travel to space, including making an issue of sending 100 tampons with her for a six day mission. Ride pushed back with emphasis on her just being an astronaut like any other.

Perhaps as a result, she shied away from the media spotlight after the first historic flight, but her breaking the glass ceiling at NASA will forever be her reward for hard work and determination.

Ride was a mission specialist, highly trained in robotics and capsule communications. Her second mission was again on Challenger in 1984. She logged…