The legacy of Sally Ride: America's first woman in space | Digital Trends

Of all the barriers to equality that women smashed in the 1960s and 1970s, one of the most exciting was seeing women leave the Earth and join the exploration of space. No one is better known to represent this achievement than Sally Ride, a NASA astronaut who became the first American woman in space in 1983. We spoke to Jennifer Ross-Nazzal, historian at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, about Ride’s career at NASA and the long reach of her legacy for women in science and beyond.

Diversifying space That change began with the recruitment of a more diverse group of astronaut candidates, who would become the famous NASA Astronaut Group 8 announced in 1978. This group of 35 astronauts included Sally Ride along with five other women, as well as the first Black and Asian American astronauts.

The coverage of the female astronauts also focused on their femininity, Ross-Nazzal said, such as their cooking skills, how well they kept their houses, and how their husbands felt about their careers. While their skills and expertise were acknowledged – these were women with PhDs and medical degrees – they still faced additional scrutiny related to their gender when compared to men.

“There was a lot of interest in that mission because it was a first, and it represented so much to many American women,” Ross-Nazzal said. “It was really a big deal for American women to see this hero — someone who had made it.” Both of those missions used the Space Shuttle Challenger. Ride had been assigned to a third mission, but in 1986 that craft was destroyed after liftoff, killing seven crew members, in what is known as the Challenger disaster. Following this, Ride’s subsequent mission was canceled as the Space Shuttle program was halted to investigate the cause of the accident.

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