I Love Space Exploration
March is Women's History Month. During this month, posters go up on the walls of the institution where I teach, giving information about various female role models in different fields of endeavor. And rightly so. But there is one story that people consistently get wrong.
Sally Ride is often celebrated as the first woman in space. Actually, the first woman in space was the Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova. In 1963, her solo flight in her Vostok space capsule logged more hours in space than the total time amassed by all of the American Mercury astronauts by that date.
Sally Ride was the first American woman in space, and the third overall (a second female cosmonaut spent time on the Soviet Mir space station.) In fact, Sally Ride's space shuttle blasted off exactly 20 years, to the day, after Valentina Tereshkova did.
However, in the larger picture of the history of space exploration, Sally Ride is certainly a more significant figure than Valentina Tereshkova. Going into space at a time when space exploration was at a more mature stage compared to the 1960's, she performed more complex and significant tasks in space than the earliest astronauts and cosmonauts could have. She had a PhD in physics and did real science on board.
Not only that, but she was a true leader back on Earth. She authored what has become known as the Ride Report, mapping out new directions for NASA's future. And, she was a leader in the analysis of the Challenger disaster.
Sally ride deserves credit for her many space-related accomplishments. However, being "first" just does not happen to be one of them.
Sally Ride is often celebrated as the first woman in space. Actually, the first woman in space was the Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova. In 1963, her solo flight in her Vostok space capsule logged more hours in space than the total time amassed by all of the American Mercury astronauts by that date.
Sally Ride was the first American woman in space, and the third overall (a second female cosmonaut spent time on the Soviet Mir space station.) In fact, Sally Ride's space shuttle blasted off exactly 20 years, to the day, after Valentina Tereshkova did.
However, in the larger picture of the history of space exploration, Sally Ride is certainly a more significant figure than Valentina Tereshkova. Going into space at a time when space exploration was at a more mature stage compared to the 1960's, she performed more complex and significant tasks in space than the earliest astronauts and cosmonauts could have. She had a PhD in physics and did real science on board.
Not only that, but she was a true leader back on Earth. She authored what has become known as the Ride Report, mapping out new directions for NASA's future. And, she was a leader in the analysis of the Challenger disaster.
Sally ride deserves credit for her many space-related accomplishments. However, being "first" just does not happen to be one of them.
