Sally Ride

Sally Ride was an astronaut. She was the first American woman to travel into space. She left Earth on June 18, 1983. She came back on June 24th. She traveled with four other astronauts in the spaceship Challenger.

Challenger orbited Earth. When something orbits something, it goes around it. How long did it take Challenger to orbit Earth? It took only 90 minutes! Challenger orbited Earth 16 times in just one day. This meant that Ride saw the sun rise and set 16 times in one day!

Ride liked being an astronaut. She liked being in space. She liked how it felt when the force of gravity was not pulling her down. Without the force of gravity, she could float. She floated from place to place. While in space, she played a game to catch jellybeans. The jellybeans were floating, too! Ride had to catch the jellybeans with her mouth!

Sally Ride worked hard to become an astronaut. She went to school for many years. She had to have special training. The training was hard work. Ride was a good astronaut. She went into space two times. Ride then became a teacher. She wrote books and helped direct space research. When you research something, you study it. You try to find out new things about it. Sally Ride received several awards and honors for her work and continues to be committed to science education.