LGBT+ History Month - Dr Sally Ride

Sally Ride is a hero of space exploration who will always be remembered, having lived an exceptional life that is worth celebrating.

Born in 1951 in California, her all round aptitude and ability came to the fore at an early age by becoming an impressive tennis player, and later pursuing studies as a scientist, ultimately being awarded a doctoral degree in physics in 1978 on the interaction of X-rays with the interstellar medium.

Around the same time, Dr. Ride applied to NASA to become an astronaut.  There had been somewhat theoretical plans within NASA to recruit women to become astronauts, but these had never come to fruition. With the commencement of the Space Shuttle programme, there was a need to recruit more astronauts, including women, to fly into space.  She impressed the recruiters, especially with her level of physical fitness, and was selected to commence training, during which she became an experienced and enthusiastic pilot, earning a private pilot’s licence.  She married fellow astronaut Steven Hawley in 1982. 

As part of her training, she helped develop the Shuttle Remote Manipulator System, more commonly known as the Canadarm, a long robotic arm used when the shuttle was in orbit to deploy and manipulate payloads, including satellites. She was chosen for the seventh shuttle mission, and when the Space Shuttle Challenger launched in June 1983, she became the third woman to fly into space after two Russian women, Valentina Tereshkova in 1963 and Svetlana Savitskaya in 1982.  She was also the first American woman to fly into space and at the time the youngest American astronaut to do so. Sally’s duties during the mission included helping to deploy two communication satellites with the robotic arm. 

After the mission returned to Earth, she became a celebrity, and was soon signed up for another shuttle mission, the thirteenth, and again flying on Challenger.  This launched in October 1984 and was the first spaceflight to have two women as part of the crew.  During this mission, Dr. Ride’s expertise with the robot arm was again put to use.

Sally was training for a third spaceflight when Challenger exploded shortly after launch in January 1986.  Shuttle flights were suspended, and Dr. Ride served on the enquiry into the accident.  She played an important role in the presidential commission by ensuring sensitive information about the flight came to public attention.  Following the disintegration of the Space Shuttle Columbia during reentry, she became the only person to serve on both commissions, ultimately taking NASA to task over a culture that valued sticking to a launch schedule at the cost of astronaut safety.

Resigning from NASA in 1987, and divorcing her husband in the same year, she pursued other science-related interests, including encouraging an interest in science amongst children, and ultimately became professor emeritus when she retired in 2007.

It was only after Dr. Ride died in July 2012 at the age of 61 that her relationship with her long-term partner Tam O’Shaughnessy became public knowledge.  She had known Tam as a tennis player when they were both young women and they had been together for 27 years by the time Dr. Ride died.  They had both kept their relationship private and Dr. Ride had not revealed her prior relationships with women to the space agency before becoming an astronaut.  

In 2013, she was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which was accepted by Tam. Sally Ride’s positivity and energy make an impression whenever you read about her life and her accomplishments.