OTD in Space – June 18: America’s First Woman in Space

On June 18, 1983, NASA astronaut Sally Ride became America's first woman in space after she and four colleagues blasted off on the space shuttle Challenger for the STS-7 mission. The astronauts spent 6 days in space deployed two communications satellites for Indonesia and Canada. Ride became the first woman to operate Canadarm, the shuttle's robotic arm. She used it to deploy a Shuttle Pallet Satellite that was loaded with science experiments, and later used it again to bring the satellite back inside the shuttle. They returned to Earth on June 24th. Ride later became the first American woman to travel a second time when she launched on another Challenger mission, STS-41-G, in 1984. Ride also served as president of SPACE.com from 1999 to 2000.

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It's not mentioned in the video, but a significant chapter of Sally Ride's career with NASA (and her association with the particular space shuttle she flew on) was her involvement in the Rogers Commission, investigating the Challenger launch failure that killed seven of her colleagues. She was also on the Columbia Accident Investigation Board -- and thus was the only person to be involved in both shuttle tragedy commissions.

Sally Ride had such a fantastic life story, and Tam O'Shaughnessy's biography of her is a great introduction for younger readers, if they want to dig a little deeper after watching this video.

And, wow! - I wasn't aware of Dr. Ride's involvement with Space.com until I saw this. Good on you guys! Would love to know more about her tenure as president during that Wild West period of the web's development.