![]() ![]() In 1986 she was still a part of NASA, waiting for her next turn in space, when the space shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after launch. ![]() She gave countless interviews, entertained some silly questions - would she be able to have children after her space flight? - while blasting through the astronaut glass ceiling. Ride’s selection to be the first American woman in space was met with a tsunami of media attention. Sherr, who says it was exciting to remember those days at the space program, describes the astronaut training and science of the Shuttle with flair. Once she entered the space program, Ride was intent upon succeeding inside NASA. But her relationship with fellow student Molly Tyson is not, and Sherr gets the story from Tyson herself, who remembers her warmly - as do the rest of Ride’s exes, including physicist Bill Colson and astronaut Steve Hawley. It was in her last days as a PhD student that Ride read a story in the Stanford student newspaper: “NASA to Recruit Women.” That’s part of her lore as an astronaut. ![]() She double majored in physics and English, then entered Stanford’s PhD program studying astrophysics. That was Stanford, where she was the school’s #1 singles player and, for a time, its only female physics major. She pivoted and moved on to the next step.” Sherr says that Ride “never dwelled on the failures or the mistakes or missed opportunities. ![]()
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