Sally Kristen RideMay 26, 1951 - July 23, 2012
She was the first woman, from the United States, to enter space On June 18, 1983, she became the first American woman in space aboard the the Space Shuttle Challenger. She also founded NASA's Office of Exploration.
She was one of over 8,000 people to answer a newspaper ad seeking people for the space program. She was chosen and joined NASA in 1978.
She was also the ground bases Capsule communicator for the 2nd and 3rd Space shuttle flights, and was also involved in the development of the Shuttles robot arm.
In 1987 she left washington DC to work at Stanford University where she was involved in the Center for International Security and Arms Control.
She was also the only public figure to back Roger Boisjoly when he went public with his pre-disaster warning about the tech problems with the Space Shuttle Challenger.
She wrote 5 books on space. These were aimed at children, in an attempt to get them into the sciences and space.
She received numerous awards including the NASA Space Flight Medal twice, and was also the only person to serve on both panels over the two shuttle disasters, Challenger and Columbia.
She was taken from us after a 17 month battle with pancreatic cancer.
Good luck our friend. May the solar winds carry you far into the unknown. We'll catch up eventually.
So long hero, we'll miss you, and you will never be forgotten.
I think it's time for another statue to be made.
28 comments:
Not sure what happened to the words there, they are all different sizes. Weren't when i previewed it, but I forgot the pic and after I added that, this happened. Sorry about that folks.
Kall, edited that for you. What happens is blogger is not very forgiving of different fonts. What I do is to use edit HTML and input my text there, that way no matter what gets pasted will come out with the proper text font and all the same font. However when I post a picture I use the compose instead of html that way you can see right off the bat what the pic will post up like. I can't see where you did anything drastic, because that is a GREAT article...to my shame, I remembered Chalenger but didnt really forget Ride and crew just kind of lumped them together. Feel bad now...
Thanks for the article sir!
Hey thanks man. I never had that happen before. I think what happened is that I had posted it, and then saw I forgot to put the pic in. Basically, I think i confused the blogger system and it told me where to go.
I'll remember that next time though, thanks.
I kind of did the same thing. I try to keep up with everything, and then sometimes things get a bit blurred together.
Thanks again for fixing that for me. I was kind of hoping you'd do that. I tried, and I honestly think I made it worse.
Despite being the true American hero that she is for blazing a glorious trail for women, neither her accomplishments nor accolades from Presidents and would-be leaders can alter the fact that DOMA (The Defense of Marriage Act) will deny her partner of 27 years all survivor rights afforded to other couples. So despite all the rightfully deserved praise that you will hear, nothing can alter the fact that because of DOMA, she and her partner will be treated as second class citizens. And this, friends, is how hypocritical we have become and shows the true face of equality in America.
Nope, truthfully there was only a couple of calls to different fonts. But it is when you put in a pic that things get weird. That's why I wait until the last thing is done then I will switch to compose and enter my picture as the last thing I do. But above all the story is what is important, not how it looks. You nailed that!
I wish I could say I remember her better. I remember the beutific smile and the nimbus of hair. I remember a shot report showing her at the shuttle's arm station, but you know how those go. In and out in under 2. Sad really that they didn't see what was right in front of their faces
Do yourself a favor and stay off the yahoo site about her. There are actually people on there putting her down, or making fun of her, or why should I care she didn't pay my bills.
Needless to say, you can guess what happened.
Yeah, BOOOMM. It was nice to see so many attack them for it though. Guess there's still a few more out there than I thought.
I just could not believe some of what people were saying about a national fracking hero. Yeah I'm still in ballistic stage over it. I need to write something and kill off about 100 trolls or something. Maybe I'll go play Resident evil for a bit and calm down.
Man did I enter absolute furious stage when I read that stuff. It's amazing I didn't start glowing with my hair standing on end. Yes, I got that mad, that fast, and as far as I am concerned, I had good reason to.
Now then, off to slaughter zombies for awhile, and forget the bloody idiots we inhabit the planet with.
I just called them bloody idiots. British shows are either destroying my language, or improving it. I'm not sure which. But I'm putting all the blame for that on Red Dwarf, Father Ted, and a few others. It's all their fault, lol.
Really? Really? That is so much crap, but I will take your advice and stay away from the Yahoo site, I don't need to be drawn down. I don't give a rats ass about lifestyle choices.
there ya go...Red Dwarf...Evil? lol I can't even say it with a straight face....
Oh yeah, that was pointed out as well. I'd forgotten that on my rant there.
I need money, lots of it. I need to build a ship. I know my engines will work in space without gravity, I just need to get them up there, on my own ship.
I need to get off this planet.
We all need to get together and build us a huge freaking station. Then we can rent out parts to everyone for experiments. We'll get the tv signals, etc, and just no longer deal with things planet side. Just make sure we have enough power to leave orbit and get out of the way if they decide to blow the place up. Then we come back to orbit, and see who's left to help.
Wow, I really am on a tear today. Sorry about that. It's just that these people on this world are slowly driving me batty.
Sally Ride was a truly inspirational heroine and always a very classy lady. I'm sure there will be several statues of her, though it will be hard for any to top being immortalized in "We Didn't Start the Fire" - "Wheel of Fortune, Sally Ride"
As for the Yahoo comments, they seem to be just a few morons repeating their vileness ad-nauseum. I'd be far more upset if their were hateful comments by many people, rather than just a few repetitive troglodytes.
Lastly, I think the first sentence is incomplete. The second sentence correctly notes that she was the first American woman in space, but Valentina Tereshkova was the first "woman to enter space." (Which in no way lessens Sally Ride's accomplishments)
Sorry, I don't know how the incomplete version got published :-(
Dave you are correct. I messed that up, and I didn't even see i did that. Thanks for catching that brother. You are absolutely correct. My brain is always ten words ahead of my fingers. I knew that, and miss-typed. Nothing like looking like an idiot is there. My apologies all. Can not believe I did that. Oh well, one of those days, you know.
I fixed it guys, and to be truthful I have been saying for the US but never caught that either! So I went and and added for the united states Kalamis if it is ok that I jumped the gun a bit....
Dave, I took out the shorter work...was that the right one? Let me know or re enter the one you want and I will delete the older note. The one that is up there now seems to cover the info you wanted covered pretty well.
Thanks man. Appreciate that. Still can't believe I did that.
Honestly Kall, I knew what you meant, and I read it that way...until he said something I never noticed! Not to worry, I enjoy your posts and it would seem that the listeners, that know the diff, enjoy them as well. Keep doing what you do.
Paul
kallamis: It was a minor mistake! I certainly made much worse when I blogged. (Now if you had forgotten "American" in the second sentence as well . . .)
Paul: Yes, right one!
LOL, no kidding man. Missing that twice would have been really bad on my part.
Just saw a commercial on the Science channel. It was a tribute style commercial for our lady here. Good for them.
ditto, I will remember to look for it as well, have not seen it as yet, but then my tv watching has been sporadic over the past few days.
Yep, good for them!
Oh you guys are going to love this, and no, I wasn't surprised, but to see it in print and and to bring it again into focus...check out this short article:
Sally Kohn at TIME, writing about the female domestic partner of Sally Ride, physicist and first American woman in space: "Under federal law, Ride’s domestic partner of 27 years will not receive death benefits or Social Security payments. Is that any way to treat a hero?" It's an injustice, but it's not NASA's fault. Nor, of course, is the injustice limited to the case of Sally Ride and the woman who loved her. This is all DOMA.
Like I said, not surprised, just one of the tiny cuts of a death by a thousand tiny cuts.....
Yeah I saw that too. But just think what might really get accomplished when we get past this stage of development.
Or then again, maybe Stanley on Lexx was correct. We're a type 13 planet and doomed from the start.
sigh, Kall I would hope that is not the case, but we are already showing our hands and so many have cashed out. As my melancholy friend said, economics has taken the heart out of manned space flight and even after the present downturn reverses, the likelihood of it reinvigorating a new push is unlikely. sigh I hope he is wrong even though it looks like he is right.
Yeah, I'm afraid he may be right as well. Unless something happens to push us back out again. Unfortunately, most are in the same realms as the mess we are in now. Backed by the need for wealth.
There is one other possibility though. The need for resources, and the need for space. Which will also end up fueled by greed as well, and not the benefit of society in general. Now I'm about to go off on a tangent. I'll never get it entirely. Wealth sure. Wealth to buy the planet 15 times over, no.
To be honest, I'm kind of leaning in the thoughts that we are what Stan called us.
Do you honestly think that there will be a push do to lack of resources to mine them in space? It is a glorious prospect and very romantic but the truth is that mining technology has become very efficient. The very size and productivity of the strip mine alone is staggering. Already you can see the biggest strip mine from Earth orbit. This tells me that there may come a time when strip miners will have to decompress like the caisson workers of the last century. This type of mining even with the complications of depth is still far less expensive than mining an asteroid. So we will not see space mining in the near or middle future, possibly in a couple of centuries, however I don't believe it will be for lack of resources because there are plenty but they are buried deeper than we have the technology to mine at that depth. So what would drive us to mine in space? When space is the cheaper and safer alternative, that's when which begs the question, what is the Earth like when one of the most deadly environments we know of is safer than mining Earth?
Oh I didn't think it would be soon. I think we'll push to mine everything we can here first.
I think a lot will depend on population, and how fast we fill up space and need more. I think that will push faster then need for resources actually.
Honestly, I don't think I'll see any real manned missions of exploration again in my lifetime.
I'd like to see the mars mission they keep talking about, but I am willing to bet by then, all the money will have been channeled into another pocket.
What we need is a way for a serious profit from space. Then we'd be moving along.
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