On June 18, 1983, 5 astronauts aboard shuttle called Challenger blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center – this wasn’t the first time NASA had sent its astronauts into space, but what made this mission special was the presence of a young female astronaut, named Sally Ride, aboard shuttle Challenger.
She was the first woman in the history to go into space. 35 years after Ride made her first journey into space, the U.S. Postal Service is now paying her a tribute by creating a new ‘Forever’ stamp inspired by the legendary astronaut and physicist, Sally Ride.
On Thursday, US Postal Service paid a tribute to Sally Ride, the first female astronaut to go in space, by designing a stamp with her face on it
First Female Astronaut in Space
Sally Ride wasn’t just the first female astronaut to go into space, she is also remembered as one of the best physicists of her generation who acted as an education advocate and founded her own science company called Sally Ride Science, with the purpose of encouraging young girls to pursue a career in science and technology.
Ride died in 2012 but her achievements will forever be celebrated by women around the world who are inspired to study science, mathematics, and physics in order to follow in her footsteps and break gender barriers in their field of profession.
U.S. Postal Services is now paying tribute to Sally Ride’s extraordinary contributions in the field of science and engineering by designing a new stamp featuring a portrait of Ride in a NASA spacesuit, smiling next to the iconic shuttle Challenger.
Executive VP of Postal Service, Kristin Seaver, said while addressing a ceremony at University of California – where Ride had taught Physics – that young girls around the world are inspired to become astronauts, mathematicians and engineers all thanks to the first female astronaut in the U.S. history. She added that girls are no longer dreamers, because Sally Ride showed them that no dream is out of reach, as long as women believe in themselves and their unbounded potential.
Sally Ride also founded a science company in her name with the purpose of encouraging young girls to pursue a career in science and technology
Breaking Stereotypes and Glass Ceilings
The beautiful stamp of a smiling Ride next to the shuttle which facilitated her first space mission is designed by a talented artist named Paul Salmon. The stamp has also gotten the approval of the co-founder of Sally Ride Science and Ride’s partner, Tam O’Shaughnessy, who said that the illustration on the stamp captures Ride’s jolliness and exuberant aura perfectly.
O’Shaughnessy revealed that Ride herself was passionate about collecting stamps when she was younger, and ever since the historic 1983 space shuttle launch, the female astronaut has been featured on several stamps in different countries.
Sally Ride was 32 years old when she joined the crew of shuttle Challenger; apart from being the first woman in space, she was also the youngest astronauts to ever go on a space mission. She was accepted into NASA’s 1978 astronauts class along with five other women. After her first mission she was also on the investigation panel for space shuttle disasters and became the only astronaut to investigate the space tragedies with Columbia and Challenger shuttles.
She was also the first gay astronaut to go into space – although she didn’t reveal her gender orientation to the world until her death in 2012.
Before Sally Ride became an astronaut, she was a professional tennis player and even received a sports scholarship from Swarthmore College where she majored in Physics and English. She later enrolled in Stanford University to get a Masters and doctoral in Physics.
Her career as an astronaut began after she saw an advertisement from NASA in a newspaper and decided to enroll in their space program. After her successful career as an astronaut, Ride joined University of California as a physics professor and later as the director of California Space Institute.
Apart from being the first woman in space, Ride was also the youngest astronauts to ever go on a space mission
Defying Odds… and Criticisms
Prior to setting off on her first space mission, Sally faced a lot of skepticism from the media and other male astronauts in her department who didn’t believe that she was capable carrying out such a huge undertaking. Many questioned her ability to go on a space mission and voiced concerns about whether she would carry her makeup on the shuttle or have emotional breakdowns in space under stressful situations.
Despite the criticism, Sally proved everyone wrong after becoming the first female astronaut to have successfully carried out a space mission.
Sally Ride was a trailblazer in every way imaginable. Not only did she smash through the glass ceiling in a profession were women weren’t considered capable of going on a space mission, but she also refused to conform to the society’s perception of the LGBT community, keeping her head high and continuing to reach new heights of success in whichever role she took on in life. And because of that, the US postal office’s tribute ‘Forever’ describes Ride’s legacy perfectly.
