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Story highlights. 1  Sally Ride earned four degrees from Stanford University; she was an author. 2  President Barack Obama hails Ride as a national hero. 3  The former astronaut dies after a 17-month battle with pancreatic cancer; she was 61. 4  NASA: Ride broke barriers ... and literally changed the face of America's space program.
Laura writes: First, Sally Rideâs marriage to Steve Hawley was unsuccessful. Second, while Ride did indeed encourage a love of space in the young, she also never seriously resisted the wide use of her image for feminist purposes and she linked enthusiasm for science in women to egalitarian careerism.