May 2th, 1951 Sally Ride was born. On June 18, 1983, Sally Ride rode into the history books and American hearts when she became the first American woman to go into space aboard Space Shuttle Challenger STS-7.
Did you know she was a Physicist? She actually has a bachelors, a masters and a PhD in physics. Besides those, she also has a bachelor’s degree in English. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize she is one smart cookie.
I remember sitting in my basement in my aforementioned Princess Anne basement in 1977 (I thought it might have been earlier, but the first test flights were in ’77) watching the Space Shuttle being transported from one place to another. I now assume it was being taken from where it had landed to where it was going to take off next. So, here I am, a scrawny girl, 14-years old telling her friends that she would come out and play later, “I am watching history.” Centered on the screen of her console television set, an odd shaped airplane that supposedly would take her to the moon someday, riding piggy back on a 747. It was the most awesome and inspiring thing I had seen.
I feel a connection to NASA and the space program because I was allowed to participate by watching. Looking back at my future dreams, thinking that by now I would have the opportunity to go to the moon on the Shuttle (for isn’t that what it sounds like it should do?), I am sad that it hasn’t come true. Aren’t you?
I dream of a day when fantasies of a child will come true within their lifetime. Well, I guess I a not that old, it could still come true. I just hope it won’t be too expensive.
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