Sally Ride, the first US woman to travel into space and an advocate for science education, died of pancreatic cancer on Monday, aged 61.
Ms Ride broke new ground for American women in 1983 when, at the age of 32, she and four male crewmates blasted off aboard space shuttle Challenger.
“The fact that I was going to be the first American woman to go into space carried huge expectations along with it,” she recalled in a 2008 interview. “I didn’t really think about it that much at the time – but I came to appreciate what an honour it was to be selected,” she said.
President Barack Obama called Ms Ride “a national hero and a powerful role model”. In a statement, he said she had “inspired generations of young girls to reach for the stars”.
Ms Ride was not the first woman in space. That distinction fell to the Soviet Union’s Valentina Tereshkova, who blasted off aboard a Vostok 6 rocket on June 16th, 1963.
Ms Ride earned bachelor’s degrees in physics and English and her master’s and doctoral degrees in physics at Stanford University. – (Reuters)