Sally Ride - First American Female Astronaut

Group of women selected by NASA for astronaut
program.

Sally Ride,   died from pancreatic cancer  yesterday,  July 23, 2012, 17-months after diagnosis.  I met Sally more than a decade ago at Radcliffe College (which is now fully integrated with Harvard University).  We talked for a few minutes.  She was the second astronaut I met - first American woman in space.   The other I knew a bit better -   Ron McNair -  who died in the space shuttle Challenger accident.  Ron rose from very humble beginnings in South Carolina.   

Sally also started from a modest background.  Both Sally and Ron had doctorates in physics - Sally from Stanford and Ron from MIT.