On May 26, 1951 in Encino California a baby was born. Her mother, who was a teacher, named her Sally Kirsten Ride. She thought it was a fine name, not knowing it would be so fine that it would be on shirts, in the news and everywhere else. Her father, who was a teacher, too, adored her little face just like her mother. Later on in her life, when she was five, she started to love reading mysteries, adventures in space, and sports in the news. She went to Europe four years after she started to like reading and didn’t attend school there. When she came back and started school, she became a good student and loved exploring. Sally also liked playing soccer, football, and baseball. Then she started tennis and fell in complete love with it. Alice Marble started teaching it to her when she turned eleven.

Sally started playing in junior tennis competitions and was ranked eighteenth in the country. A few years after that, in 1973 she graduated from Stanford University. Four years after that she went to Houston, Texas to the Johnson Space Center. Happily on January 26, 1979 Sally and five other women got picked to train as astronauts. After training she happily graduated from Westlake school and ended up in Swarthmore College. While she was there, she earned some degrees in physics and English. After she majored in astrophysics and got a PhD in physics she fell in love with Steven Hawley. In 1982 it ended up she married him. Four years after that she wrote To Space and Back. Ride decided to teach physics at Stanford. Sally is still alive thinking of her younger years.

Sally K. Ride is famous for being the first American women in space, but she didn’t do it write away. She had to do other things before that. Ride was the only person on earth to talk to someone in space. After she accomplished something so great, she helped build the robot arm. Then the thing she was most famous for happened. Sally Kirsten Ride was the first American women in space. She took off at 7:33 AM on June 18, 1983. Six days after that she came back, but while she was there she used the robot arm she helped build. Sally did it again. She took her second flight on October 5, 1984. Sadly everyone missed her when she left on her 36^th birthday. Excitingly she became a member of the astronaut hall of fame on June 21, 2003.

Sally’s life was full of fame. It was also remarkable. One way it was remarkable is that she was the only person on earth to talk to someone in space. That was remarkable and incredible. Another thing is that she was the only American women to do countless things. Two things are that she used the robot arm and went to space. When Sally was taking off on her first flight, over 250,000 people watched and most of them had shirts that said Ride, Sally Ride. That is a multitude of people.

Sally Ride inspired lots of people. She inspired kids to learn about space and women to go to space. Sally inspired people to do things just like she is doing now.