Gathering of some Female Astronauts in memory of Sally Ride. Image credit NASA
Seated (from left): Carolyn Huntoon, Ellen Baker KB5SIX, Mary Cleave, Rhea Seddon, Anna Fisher, Shannon Lucid R0MIR, Ellen Ochoa KB5TZZ, Sandy Magnus KE5FYE.
Standing (from left): Jeanette Epps, Mary Ellen Weber, Marsha Ivins, Tracy Caldwell Dyson KF5DBF, Bonnie Dunbar KD5DCB, Tammy Jernigan KC5MGF, Cady Coleman KC5ZTH, Janet Kavandi, Serena Aunon, Kate Rubins, Stephanie Wilson KD5DZE, Dottie Metcalf-Lindenburger KE5DAT, Megan McArthur, Karen Nyberg, Lisa Nowak KC5ZTB
Photographer: Lauren Harnett

On September 17, 2012, 22 female astronauts, a number of them radio amateurs, along with Johnson Space Center’s first female director, Carolyn Huntoon, met to honor Sally Ride and her legacy.

Sally Ride – Image Credit NASA

Sally Kristen Ride was one of 8,000 people to answer an advertisement in a newspaper seeking applicants for the space program. As a result, she joined NASA in 1978. On June 18, 1983, she became the first American woman in space as a crew member on Space Shuttle Challenger for STS-7.

She was the president and CEO of Sally Ride Science, a company she co-founded in 2001 that creates entertaining science programs and publications for upper elementary and middle school students, with a particular focus on young women. The science books, student programs and professional development programs place a strong emphasis on gender and racial equality in the classroom and provide role models of working scientists, engineers and mathematicians who exemplify this diversity in their respective fields

Sally Ride wrote or co-wrote five books on space aimed at children, with the goal of encouraging children to study science.

She died on July 23, 2012, aged 61, seventeen months after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

Wiki – Sally Ride http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sally_Ride

Astronuat Sally Ride – Image Credit NASA