Sally Ride After NASA When did Ride leave NASA? In 1987, Ride left her position in Washington, D.C., to work at the Stanford University Center for International Security and Arms Control. What did she do at the Stanford Center? International Security and Arms Control. How long was she there? In 1989, she became a professor of physics at the University of California, San Diego, and director of the California Space Institute. Was she successful as a professor? I don't know. Did she have any other professions? Ride led two public-outreach programs for NASA--the ISS EarthKAM and GRAIL MoonKAM projects, in cooperation with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and UCSD. What was involved in the programs? The programs allowed middle school students to request images of the Earth and moon. What did she do after this? In 1999, she acted in the season 5 finale of Touched by an Angel, titled "Godspeed". Are there any other interesting aspects about this article? She was the president and CEO of Sally Ride Science,
What was Sally Ride Science?
What was Sally Ride Science?
In 1987, Ride left her position in Washington, D.C., to work at the Stanford University Center for International Security and Arms Control. In 1989, she became a professor of physics at the University of California, San Diego, and director of the California Space Institute. From the mid-1990s until her death, Ride led two public-outreach programs for NASA--the ISS EarthKAM and GRAIL MoonKAM projects, in cooperation with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and UCSD. The programs allowed middle school students to request images of the Earth and moon. In 1999, she acted in the season 5 finale of Touched by an Angel, titled "Godspeed". In 2003, she was asked to serve on the Columbia Accident Investigation Board. She was the president and CEO of Sally Ride Science, a company she co-founded in 2001 that creates entertaining science programs and publications for upper elementary and middle school students, with a particular focus on girls. According to Roger Boisjoly, the engineer who warned of the technical problems that led to the Challenger disaster, after the entire workforce of Morton-Thiokol shunned him Ride was the only public figure to show support for him when he went public with his pre-disaster warnings. Sally Ride hugged him publicly to show her support for his efforts. Ride wrote or co-wrote seven books on space aimed at children, with the goal of encouraging children to study science. Ride endorsed Barack Obama for U.S. President in 2008. She was a member of the Review of United States Human Space Flight Plans Committee, an independent review requested by the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) on May 7, 2009. CANNOTANSWER
a company she co-founded in 2001 that creates entertaining science programs and publications for upper elementary and middle school students,
Sally Kristen Ride (May 26, 1951 – July 23, 2012) was an American astronaut and physicist. Born in Los Angeles, she joined NASA in 1978, and in 1983 became the first American woman in space. She was the third woman in space overall, after USSR cosmonauts Valentina Tereshkova (1963) and Svetlana Savitskaya (1982). Ride remained the youngest American astronaut to have traveled to space, having done so at the age of 32, until 2021 when Hayley Arceneaux flew on SpaceX's Inspiration4 mission at the age of 29. After flying twice on the Orbiter Challenger, she left NASA in 1987.

Ride worked for two years at Stanford University's Center for International Security and Arms Control, then at the University of California, San Diego, primarily researching nonlinear optics and Thomson scattering. She served on the committees that investigated the Challenger and Columbia Space Shuttle disasters, the only person to participate in both. Having been married to astronaut Steven Hawley during her spaceflight years and in a private, long-term relationship with former Women's Tennis Association player Tam O'Shaughnessy in her years after, she is the earliest space traveler to have been recognized as LGBT. Ride died of pancreatic cancer on July 23, 2012.

Early life
The elder child of Dale Burdell Ride and Carol Joyce Ride (née Anderson), Ride was born in the Encino neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. She had one sibling, Karen "Bear" Ride, who is a Presbyterian minister. Both parents were elders in the Presbyterian Church. Ride's mother, who was of Norwegian descent, had worked as a volunteer counselor at a women's correctional facility. Her father had been a political science professor at Santa Monica College.

Ride attended Portola Junior High (now Portola Middle School) and then Birmingham High School before graduating from the private Westlake School for Girls in Los Angeles on a scholarship. In addition to being interested in science, she was a nationally ranked tennis player, and took a break from college to pursue a professional tennis career. Ride attended Swarthmore College for three semesters, took physics courses at University of California, Los Angeles, and then entered Stanford University as a junior, graduating with a bachelor's degree in English and physics. At Stanford, she earned a master's degree in 1975 and a PhD in physics in 1978 while doing research on the interaction of X-rays with the interstellar medium. Astrophysics and free electron lasers were her specific areas of study.

NASA career

Selection

Ride was selected to be an astronaut as part of NASA Astronaut Group 8, in 1978, the first class to select women. She applied after seeing an advertisement in the Stanford student newspaper, and was one of only 35 people selected out of the 8000 applications. After graduating training in 1979, becoming eligible to work as a mission specialist she served as the ground-based capsule communicator (CapCom) for the second and third Space Shuttle flights, and helped develop the Space Shuttle's "Canadarm" robot arm.

Prior to her first space flight, Ride was subject to media attention due to her gender. During a press conference, she was asked questions such as, "Will the flight affect your reproductive organs?" and "Do you weep when things go wrong on the job?" Despite this and the historical significance of the mission, Ride insisted that she saw herself in only one way—as an astronaut.

STS-7

On June 18, 1983, Ride became the first American woman in space as a crew member on Space Shuttle Challenger for STS-7. Many of the people attending the launch wore T-shirts bearing the words "Ride, Sally Ride", lyrics from Wilson Pickett's song "Mustang Sally". The purpose of the mission was to deploy two communications satellites and the first Shuttle Pallet Satellite (SPAS-1), conduct experiments within the cargo bay, and test the TDRS satellite. SPAS-1 was successfully deployed, underwent experiments, then recollected and brought back to Earth.

Part of Ride's job was to operate the robotics arm to deploy and retrieve SPAS-1.

STS-41-G

Ride's second space flight was STS-41-G in 1984, also on board Challenger. She spent a total of more than 343 hours in space.

Cancelled Shuttle mission
Ride had completed eight months of training for her third flight (STS-61-M, a TDRS deployment mission) when the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster occurred.

Rogers Commission
Ride was named to the Rogers Commission (the presidential commission investigating the Challenger disaster) and headed its subcommittee on operations. She was the only person to serve on both of the panels investigating Shuttle accidents (those for the Challenger accident and later the Columbia disaster). Following the Challenger investigation, Ride was assigned to NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C., where she led NASA's first strategic planning effort, authored a report titled "NASA Leadership and America's Future in Space" and founded NASA's Office of Exploration. After Sally Ride's death in 2012, General Donald Kutyna revealed that she had discreetly provided him with key information about O-rings (namely, that they become stiff at low temperatures) that eventually led to identification of the cause of the explosion.

After NASA 

In 1987, Ride left her position in Washington, D.C., to work at the Stanford University Center for International Security and Arms Control. In 1989, she became a professor of physics at the University of California, San Diego, and director of the California Space Institute. From the mid-1990s until her death, Ride led two public-outreach programs for NASA—the ISS EarthKAM and GRAIL MoonKAM projects, in cooperation with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and UCSD. The programs allowed middle school students to request images of the Earth and Moon. In 1999, she acted in the season 5 finale of Touched by an Angel, titled "Godspeed". In 2003, she was asked to serve on the Columbia Accident Investigation Board. She was the president and CEO of Sally Ride Science, a company she co-founded in 2001 that creates entertaining science programs and publications for upper elementary and middle school students, with a particular focus on girls.

According to Roger Boisjoly, who was one of the engineers that warned of the technical problems that led to the Challenger disaster, after the entire workforce of Morton-Thiokol shunned him, Ride was the only public figure to show support for him when he went public with his pre-disaster warnings. Sally Ride hugged him publicly to show her support for his efforts.

Ride wrote or co-wrote seven books on space aimed at children, with the goal of encouraging children to study science.

Ride endorsed Barack Obama for U.S. president in 2008. She was a member of the Review of United States Human Space Flight Plans Committee, an independent review requested by the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) on May 7, 2009.

Personal life and death 
Ride was extremely private about her personal life. In 1982, she married fellow NASA astronaut Steven Hawley. They divorced in 1987.

Ride died on July 23, 2012, at the age of 61, in her home in La Jolla, a neighborhood of San Diego, California, seventeen months after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Following cremation, her ashes were interred next to her father at Woodlawn Memorial Cemetery, Santa Monica.

After Ride's death, her obituary revealed that her partner of 27 years was Tam O'Shaughnessy, a professor emerita of school psychology at San Diego State University and childhood friend, who met her when both were aspiring tennis players. O'Shaughnessy was also a science writer and, later, the co-founder of Sally Ride Science. O'Shaughnessy served as the chief executive officer and chair of the Board of Sally Ride Science. They wrote six acclaimed children's science books together. Their relationship was revealed by the company and confirmed by her sister, who said she chose to keep her personal life private, including her sickness and treatments. This made Ride the first lesbian astronaut and the first lesbian in outer space.

Awards and honors 

Ride received numerous awards throughout her lifetime and after. She received the National Space Society's von Braun Award, the Lindbergh Eagle, and the NCAA's Theodore Roosevelt Award. She was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame and the Astronaut Hall of Fame and was awarded the NASA Space Flight Medal twice. Two elementary schools in the United States are named after her: Sally Ride Elementary School in The Woodlands, Texas, and Sally Ride Elementary School in Germantown, Maryland.

In 1984, Ride received the Samuel S. Beard Award for Greatest Public Service by an Individual 35 Years or Under, an award given out annually by Jefferson Awards.

On December 6, 2006, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver inducted Ride into the California Hall of Fame at the California Museum for History, Women, and the Arts.

In 2007, Ride was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in Dayton, Ohio.

Ride directed public outreach and educational programs for NASA's GRAIL mission, which sent twin satellites to map the moon's gravity. On December 17, 2012, the two GRAIL probes, Ebb and Flow, were directed to complete their mission by crashing on an unnamed lunar mountain near the crater Goldschmidt. NASA announced that it was naming the landing site in honor of Sally Ride. Also in December 2012, the Space Foundation bestowed upon Ride its highest honor, the General James E. Hill Lifetime Space Achievement Award.

In April 2013, the U.S. Navy announced that a research ship would be named in honor of Ride. This was done in 2014 with the christening of the oceanographic research vessel RV Sally Ride (AGOR-28).

On May 20, 2013, a "National Tribute to Sally Ride" was held at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. and on that same day, President Barack Obama announced that Ride would receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States. The medal was presented to her life partner Tam O'Shaughnessy in a ceremony at the White House on November 20, 2013. In July 2013, Flying magazine ranked Ride at number 50 on their list of the "51 Heroes of Aviation".

In 2014, Ride was inducted into the Legacy Walk, an outdoor public display in Chicago that celebrates LGBT history and people.

In 2017, a Google Doodle honored her on International Women's Day.

The U.S. Postal Service issued a first-class postage stamp honoring Ride in 2018.

In 2019, Stanford University’s Serra House located in Lucie Stern Hall was renamed the Sally Ride House.

For their first match of March 2019, the women of the United States women's national soccer team each wore a jersey with the name of a woman they were honoring on the back; Tierna Davidson chose the name of Sally Ride.

Ride will appear as one of the first two honorees of the American Women quarters series in 2022. She will be the first known LGBT person to appear on US currency.

In popular culture 
When she became the first American woman in space on the Space Shuttle Challenger, many in the crowd attending the launch wore T-shirts printed, "Ride, Sally Ride", a play on the lyric of the 1965 song "Mustang Sally".

Billy Joel's 1989 song "We Didn't Start the Fire" mentions her.

In 1999, Ride appeared as herself on the Touched By An Angel episode "Godspeed".

In 2013, Janelle Monáe released a song called "Sally Ride".

Also in 2013, astronauts Chris Hadfield and Catherine Coleman performed a song called "Ride On". The song was later released as part of Hadfield's album Space Sessions: Songs from a Tin Can under the name Ride That Lightning.

Ride's space flight is a central event in the 2016 novel Our Lady of the Inferno.

In 2017, a "Women of NASA" LEGO set went on sale featuring (among other things) mini-figurines of Ride, Margaret Hamilton, Mae Jemison, and Nancy Grace Roman.

In 2019, Mattel released a Barbie doll in Ride's likeness as part of their "Inspiring Women" series.

In the film Valley Girl (2020), Ride is referred to not only as the first woman astronaut, but also as a valley girl, since she was from Encino.

In 2021, Ride was featured in the second season of the Apple TV+ streaming series For All Mankind, where she was played by actress Ellen Wroe.

Selected works 
 Essay
 

 Books

See also 

 Women in space
 List of female astronauts
 List of female explorers and travelers
 Mercury 13
 Women in science

References

External links 

 Biography at NASA
 
 
 
 
 
 Sally Ride Science Festivals
 Sally Ride Girls Science Camps
 Sally Ride Science company website
 
 
 

 
1951 births
2012 deaths
20th-century American non-fiction writers
20th-century American women scientists
20th-century American women writers
21st-century American non-fiction writers
21st-century American women writers
American astronauts
American children's writers
American science writers
Articles containing video clips
Burials at Woodlawn Memorial Cemetery, Santa Monica
Deaths from cancer in California
Deaths from pancreatic cancer
Fellows of the American Physical Society
Harmon Trophy winners
LGBT people from California
LGBT scientists from the United States
LGBT writers from the United States
People from Encino, Los Angeles
Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients
Scientists from California
Stanford University alumni
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Swarthmore College alumni
United States Astronaut Hall of Fame inductees
Women astronauts
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20th-century American physicists
People from La Jolla, San Diego
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Space Shuttle program astronauts
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Lesbians
Tam Elizabeth O'Shaughnessy (born January 27, 1952) is an American children's science writer and former professional tennis player who co-founded the science education company Sally Ride Science together with her partner, astronaut Sally Ride, the first American woman in space. The company was relaunched as a nonprofit entity, Sally Ride Science at UC San Diego, on October 1, 2015. O'Shaughnessy serves as executive director.

Childhood and early career 
O'Shaughnessy was born in San Andreas, California, and attended Troy High School in Fullerton, California, where she was active in tennis. As a junior player, she was coached by Billie Jean King.

Tennis 
O'Shaughnessy went on to play on the women's professional tennis circuit from 1971 to 1974. She competed in the U.S. National Championships (now known as the U.S. Open) in 1966, 1970, and 1972.  Her entry into the 1966 U.S. National Championships at the age of 14 came about by serendipity.

O'Shaughnessy was being coached by Dr. Robert Walter Johnson, a physician who played a key role in the tennis careers of Althea Gibson and Arthur Ashe. Johnson was an official of the American Tennis Association (ATA), an organization that promotes tennis for African Americans but welcomes players of all backgrounds. During the summer of 1966, O'Shaughnessy, who is not African American, competed in ATA tournaments in addition to U.S. Tennis Association junior events. She won the ATA national 18-and-under championship, and so was automatically entered into the U.S. National Championship draw.

O'Shaughnessy also competed in the 1972 Wimbledon Championships. During her tennis career, she was ranked as high as No. 52 in the world in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association and as high as No. 6 in the U.S. in women's doubles (with Ann Lebedeff) by the USTA. O'Shaughnessy won national hard-court doubles titles in the junior division (with Ann Lebedeff) and in the women's division (with Pam Austin).

After retiring from tennis, O'Shaughnessy was the founding publisher of the Women's Tennis Association newsletter for several years before going to college to study biology.

Science educator 

O'Shaughnessy earned B.S. and M.S. degrees in biology from Georgia State University and a Ph.D. in school psychology from the University of California, Riverside. She was assistant professor of school psychology at Georgia State University from 1998 through 2001, and then associate professor of school psychology at San Diego State University from 2002 until 2007. O'Shaughnessy's research on preventive interventions for children with reading difficulties was continuously funded by the U.S. Department of Education starting in graduate school. She retired early to concentrate on Sally Ride Science, and was named associate professor emeritus at San Diego State University.

O'Shaughnessy has extensive experience cultivating girls' and boys' interest in reading, math, and science. Besides being a former science teacher, O'Shaughnessy has written 12 children's science books, including six with Sally Ride. They received the American Institute of Physics Children's Science Writing Award in 1995 for their second book, The Third Planet: Exploring the Earth From Space. In October 2015, O'Shaughnessy published a children's biography of Ride, Sally Ride: A Photobiography of America's Pioneering Woman in Space. The book combines reminiscences from Ride's family and friends with photos, including many family and personal photos.

As a scientist and educator, O'Shaughnessy became deeply concerned about the underrepresentation of women in science and technical professions. Research shows that young girls like science and have the same aptitude for it as boys, but in adolescence, girls tend to drift away from science, in part because of subtle stereotypes and lack of role models. In 2001, Ride, O'Shaughnessy, and three like-minded friends—Karen Flammer, Terry McEntee, and Alann Lopes—founded Sally Ride Science with the goal of narrowing the gender gap in science.

From 2001 to 2015, O'Shaughnessy served as the company's chief creative officer, overseeing all content—books, websites, and teacher training curricula. She guided the creation of the Cool Careers in STEM and Key Concepts in Science programs, which combine professional development for teachers with student books and teacher guides. O'Shaughnessy also served as chief operating officer of Sally Ride Science from 2009 through 2013, chairman of the board of directors from 2013 to 2015, and chief executive officer from 2014 to 2015.

Sally Ride Science was acquired by the University of California, San Diego, in October 2015. O'Shaughnessy is executive director of the resulting nonprofit entity, Sally Ride Science at UC San Diego.

Personal life 
O'Shaughnessy was the romantic partner of NASA Astronaut Sally Ride from 1985 until Ride's death in 2012.

Selected publications 
 Tam O'Shaughnessy (2015). Sally Ride: A Photobiography of America's Pioneering Woman in Space. Roaring Brook Press, 
 Sally Ride, Tam O'Shaughnessy (2009). Mission: Planet Earth: Our World and Its Climate—And How Humans Are Changing Them. Random House Children's Books, 
 Sally Ride, Tam O'Shaughnessy (2009). Mission: Save the Planet: Things YOU Can Do to Help Fight Global Warming! Random House Children's Books, 
 Sally Ride, Tam O'Shaughnessy (2003). Exploring Our Solar System. Random House Children's Books, 
 Sally Ride, Tam O'Shaughnessy (1999, 2006). The Mystery of Mars. Random House Children's Books, 
 Sally Ride, Tam O'Shaughnessy (1994, 2004). The Third Planet: Exploring the Earth from Space. Random House Children's Books, 
 Sally Ride, Tam O'Shaughnessy (1992, 2005). Voyager: An Adventure to the Edge of the Solar System. Random House Children's Books, 
 Tam O'Shaughnessy (2010). Cool Careers in Engineering. Sally Ride Science. 
 Tam O'Shaughnessy (2008). Cool Careers in Earth Sciences, Sally Ride Science, 
 Tam O'Shaughnessy (2008). Ecosystems. Sally Ride Science, 
 Tam O'Shaughnessy (2006). The Inside Story of Earth. Sally Ride Science, 
 Tam E. O'Shaughnessy, Kathleen L. Lane, Frank M. Gresham, Margaret E. Beebe-Frankenberger (2003). "Children Placed at Risk for Learning and Behavioral Difficulties". Remedial and Special Education, doi: 10.1177/074193250302400103
 Kathleen L. Lane, Frank M. Gresham, and Tam E. O'Shaughnessy (2002). "The Efficacy of Phonological Awareness Training with First-Grade Students Who Have Behavior Problems and Reading Difficulties". Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders, doi: 10.1177/106342660100900402
 Kathleen L. Lane, Frank M. Gresham, and Tam E. O'Shaughnessy (2002). Interventions for Children With or At-Risk for Emotional and Behavioral Disorders. Pearson, 
 Tam E. O'Shaughnessy (2000). "A Comparison of Two Reading Interventions for Children with Reading Disabilities". Journal of Learning Disabilities, doi: 10.1177/002221940003300304

References

Further reading

External links 
Tam O'Shaughnessy

1952 births
20th-century American women scientists
20th-century women writers
American female tennis players
American psychologists
American women children's writers
American women psychologists
Georgia State University alumni
Lesbian sportswomen
LGBT academics
LGBT people from California
LGBT scientists from the United States
LGBT sportspeople from the United States
LGBT tennis players
Living people
People from San Andreas, California
Sally Ride
San Diego State University faculty
Scientists from California
Tennis people from California
University of California, Riverside alumni
American lesbian writers
Lesbian scientists Sally Ride Science at UC San Diego is a nonprofit run by the University of California, San Diego. It was founded as a company in 2001 by Sally Ride, America's first woman in space, along with Tam O'Shaughnessy, Karen Flammer, Terry McEntee, and Alann Lopes to inspire young people in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) and to promote STEM literacy. Sally Ride Science was relaunched at UC San Diego on October 1, 2015. It is based at UC San Diego Extension, and its programs are coordinated jointly by UC San Diego Extension, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and San Diego Supercomputer Center. O'Shaughnessy is executive director and Flammer is director of education for Sally Ride Science at UC San Diego.

Programs 
Sally Ride Science at UC San Diego focuses on professional development for teachers; K-12 STEM + Arts (STEAM) education, including courses, lectures, and camps; and online programs through UCTV. The goal is to help educators build students’ STEM literacy and make connections between what students are learning and the STEM fields that are expected to experience rapid job growth in the coming decades. The nonprofit will create new programs and make use of existing Sally Ride Science programs.

Existing programs include Cool Careers in STEM, which provides professional development for teachers and classroom resources (student books, teacher guides, and a STEM Career Connections Teacher Activity Guide) to awaken students’ interest in STEM topics and careers. Research shows that learning about STEM careers and the diverse people working in these fields inspires students and makes the study of science, technology, engineering, and math more meaningful to them.

Another major existing program is Key Concepts in Science. This integrated standards-based program provides professional development for educators on how to teach science using the 5E instructional model, along with classroom resources (student books, hands-on investigations, teacher guides, and assessments) that educators can use to build students’ STEM literacy and college and career readiness. The program reflects research showing that teaching fewer science concepts in greater depth gives students a solid foundation to develop STEM literacy.

Activities

Before its acquisition by UC San Diego, Sally Ride Science implemented a variety of STEM-related educational initiatives. The company:
 organized 100 Sally Ride Science Festivals on college campuses around the country.
 created and ran a National Engineering Design (TOYchallenge) competition for eight years and created a documentary film (Some Assembly Required) following five teams of boys and girls during the 2008 competition.
 created 90 STEM and STEM careers books with comprehensive teacher guides, and more than 200 hands-on STEM investigations.
 developed and held the Sally Ride Science Academy for six years, using a train-the-trainer model.
 trained more than 30,000 teachers and reached more than 6 million students with STEM and STEM careers books.
 operated EarthKAM (based on Sally Ride's idea to let students take photos of Earth from space and use them in their studies), engaging more than 600,000 students and their teachers in 80 countries.
 helped spark the national discussion and shift the national perspective on the importance of involving girls and underrepresented minority students in STEM as they go through school and beyond.

References

Education literature
Books about education
Women and education
Science education in the United States
Popular science books
Educational materials
United States educational programs
University of California, San Diego
Organizations established in 2001
Sally Ride