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Sally Ride is born in Encino, Los Angeles, California
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Ride family takes sabbatical to Europe
Sally was 9 when this occurred. She and her sister were taught schools lessons by their mother. The girls also kept journals to practice their writing skills. During their sabbatical, the US experienced the election of JFK, Bay of Pigs, and the expansion of the civil rights movement. -
Sally begins playing tennis
Sally Ride picked up tennis while her family was living in Spain. She became a successful tennis player. She won numerous tournaments throughout high school, had newspaper headlines written about her, and even played a match against Billie Jean King at a tennis summer camp in 1972. -
Ride attends Westlake
Westlake was an all girls prep school. There, Sally discovered her interest in the sciences, deciding to major in astrophysics after she graduated in 1968 with honors in science. Ride was also the captain of the tennis team, leading her team to many successes -
Sally begins attending Swarthmore
Swarthmore College is a highly ranked institution near Philadelphia. Here, Sally continued her education in physics, yet also became interested and skilled in language arts. She also continued to play tennis. -
Sally leaves Swarthmore and attends UCLA
After continuing to have many successes in tennis at Swarthmore, Sally begun to truly miss California. In 1970, she dropped out of her third semester at Swarthmore, moved back home to California and enrolled at UCLA, focusing more on her studies and keeping tennis as a hobby. -
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Ride attends and graduates from Stanford
In September of 1970, Sally transferred to Stanford, In 1973, she graduated with a bachelor's of science in physics and a bachelor's of arts in English. By 1978, she had a masters in science and a doctorate in physics. Throughout her time at Stanford, Sally faced prejudice and discrimination due to her gender. A physics professor once declared, "What are these girls doing here? You are taking away jobs from men!". -
Sally applies to the Johnson Space Center
In early January, 1977, Sally encountered an article in The Stanford Daily with the title, "NASA to Recruit Women". Sally read this article and decided to apply to become a mission specialist candidate. Mission specialists were astronauts who would plan flights, experiments, and many other aspects of shuttle missions. By June, 1977, Sally had landed an interview with NASA -
Ride is hired by NASA
In January, 1978, Sally Ride had gotten her job at NASA. She was one of the six women chosen to work for NASA. Sally would start working at the Johnson Space Center in June 1978. -
Ride goes on her first space mission
After completing training, Sally Ride went to space on the Challenger space shuttle. This shuttle mission made Sally the first American woman in space. The mission was successful and they landed on June 24th, 1983. She rode Challenger again in October 1884 for its 13 mission. -
Sally Ride leaves NASA
After the Challenger disaster in 1986, she worked on the team that investigated what caused it. Later, she became the NASA administrator for long range and strategic planning. After nearly a decade of working for NASA, Sally decided to move on to teaching physics and became the director of the California Space Institute at UC San Diego in August of 1987. -
Ride creates Sally Ride Science
Sally Ride Science is a company, still running today, that encourages youth, especially young girls and women to pursue careers in STEAM, also creating accessibility for STEAM education. It is run by UC San Diego. -
Sally Ride dies
Sally Ride passed away in 2012 from pancreatic cancer. Her life was fulfilling and successful, bringing new horizons for American women and scientific discoveries.
