Who was the first American woman in space?
Quick answer
Sally Ride became the first American woman in space on June 18, 1983, aboard Space Shuttle Challenger on mission STS-7. A physicist, she was 32, then the youngest American astronaut to fly. She was the third woman in space, after Soviet cosmonauts Valentina Tereshkova (1963) and Svetlana Savitskaya (1982).
Key facts
- Astronaut
- Sally Ride (1951–2012)
- First flight
- June 18, 1983, STS-7, Space Shuttle Challenger
- Second flight
- October 1984, STS-41-G
- Background
- PhD in physics, Stanford University
Becoming an astronaut
Ride answered a newspaper ad: NASA was recruiting scientists as astronauts, and for the first time it welcomed women. More than 8,000 people applied in 1977. Ride was one of six women selected in 1978’s class of 35.
Her missions
| Mission | Year | Highlights |
|---|---|---|
| STS-7 | 1983 | Operated the shuttle’s robotic arm to deploy and retrieve a satellite, a first |
| STS-41-G | 1984 | Flew with Kathryn Sullivan, who became the first American woman to walk in space |
Reporters asked Ride whether spaceflight would affect her reproductive organs and whether she cried when things went wrong. She famously insisted on being treated simply as an astronaut.
After spaceflight
- She served on the commissions investigating both the Challenger (1986) and Columbia (2003) shuttle disasters, the only person to serve on both.
- She became a physics professor at the University of California, San Diego.
- In 2001 she co-founded Sally Ride Science to encourage girls and young people in science and math.
Legacy
Ride died of pancreatic cancer in 2012. Her obituary revealed her 27-year relationship with Tam O’Shaughnessy, making her also the first known LGBTQ astronaut. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2013 and appeared on a US quarter in 2022.
Women in space milestones
| Year | Milestone |
|---|---|
| 1963 | Valentina Tereshkova, first woman in space |
| 1983 | Sally Ride, first American woman |
| 1995 | Eileen Collins, first woman to pilot the Space Shuttle |
| 2019 | First all-female spacewalk, Christina Koch and Jessica Meir |
For the first human in space, see which country sent the first human into space.
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