Today is a famous day for women in space and it happened in 1983.

Sally Ride is a former astronaut and the first American woman to reach outer space – and also the yougest American to enter outer space. Her story is interesting, because in order to get to the starry skies, she applied along with 8,000 other people to an ad in the newspaper seeking applicants for the space program.  In 1978, she was part of the first astronaut class to accept women.  In 1983, she took part in her first space shuttle mission, serving as a crewmember on board the Challenger and returned June 24 from her first mission.  After 343 hours in space (over several years), she became a professor of physics theory at UC San Diego (my alma mater!) and is in the business of promoting the sciences to children – with a particular focus on girls I might add.  Sally Ride Science is a company she founded in 2001 that creates entertaining science programs and publications for elementary and middle school kids.   This woman rocks!