Sally Ride, an American engineer, physicist, and astronaut. She earned her Ph.D. in physics from Stanford University in 1977 that lead to a career working for NASA in 1978.
On June 18, 1983, Sally Ride became the first American woman in space on the space shuttle Challenger mission STS-7.
In 1989, she retired from NASA and joined the faculty at UC San Diego as a physics professor.
She has co-authored books about science with Tam O’Shaughnessy and in 2001 she co-founded Sally Ride Science, a non-profit educational company whose mission is to get young people interested in the field of science, technology, and math.
Sally Ride has also received several honors including the United States highest civilian prize, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which was awarded posthumously by President Barack Obama in 2013.
She was 61 years old when she died from pancreatic cancer in 2012. In her honor, the US Postal Service released a Forever stamp showing her portrait in her light blue space suit and the space shuttle lifting off in the background.
The Sally Ride stamp was designed by Ethel Kessler.