Sally K. Ride, Ph.D. - Academy of Achievement

<!doctype html> <html lang="en-US" prefix="og: http://ogp.me/ns#"> <head><script type="text/javascript" src="/_static/js/bundle-playback.js?v=HxkREWBo" charset="utf-8"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="/_static/js/wombat.js?v=txqj7nKC" charset="utf-8"></script> <script>window.RufflePlayer=window.RufflePlayer||{};window.RufflePlayer.config={"autoplay":"on","unmuteOverlay":"hidden"};</script> <script type="text/javascript" src="/_static/js/ruffle/ruffle.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> __wm.init("https://web.archive.org/web"); __wm.wombat("http://www.achievement.org:80/achiever/sally-ride-ph-d","20190111083519","https://web.archive.org/","web","/_static/", "1547195719"); </script> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/_static/css/banner-styles.css?v=S1zqJCYt" /> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/_static/css/iconochive.css?v=3PDvdIFv" />  <meta charset="utf-8"> <meta http-equiv="x-ua-compatible" content="ie=edge"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="57x57" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190111083519im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-57x57.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="114x114" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190111083519im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-114x114.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="72x72" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190111083519im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-72x72.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="144x144" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190111083519im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-144x144.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="60x60" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190111083519im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-60x60.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="120x120" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190111083519im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-120x120.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="76x76" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190111083519im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-76x76.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="152x152" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190111083519im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-152x152.png"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190111083519im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-196x196.png" sizes="196x196"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190111083519im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-96x96.png" sizes="96x96"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190111083519im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-32x32.png" sizes="32x32"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190111083519im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-16x16.png" sizes="16x16"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190111083519im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-128.png" sizes="128x128"/> <meta name="application-name" content="Academy of Achievement"/> <meta name="msapplication-TileColor" content="#000000"/> <meta name="msapplication-TileImage" content="http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-144x144.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-square70x70logo" content="http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-70x70.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-square150x150logo" content="http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-150x150.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-wide310x150logo" content="http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-310x150.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-square310x310logo" content="http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-310x310.png"/> <link href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190111083519cs_/https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Source+Sans+Pro:400,600,400italic,600italic,700,700italic" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"> <title>Sally K. Ride, Ph.D. - Academy of Achievement</title>  <meta name="description" content="Sally Ride was a 27-year-old Ph.D. candidate, looking for postdoctoral work in astrophysics, when an item in the Stanford University newspaper caught her eye. NASA was looking for astronauts. She was one of only six women to be accepted, out of 8,000 applicants. She joined NASA in 1977, and underwent years of rigorous physical and scientific training. In 1983 she became the first American woman in space, flying a six-day mission on the Space Shuttle Challenger. Her second mission lasted eight days, contributing to her career total of 343 hours in space. She was scheduled for a third mission at the time of the Challenger explosion in 1986. She served on the presidential commission investigating the accident, and participated in long-term planning at the space agency's headquarters in Washington until her retirement from NASA. From 1989, she was a professor of physics at the University of California, San Diego, where her research interests centered on the theory of non-linear beam-wave interactions. She also served as a science fellow of the Center for International Security and Arms Control at Stanford University and as director of the California Space Institute. A passionate advocate for science education, she created the Sally Ride Club and Sally Ride Science Camps to encourage young girls interested in mathematics, science and technology. She was inducted into the Astronaut Hall of Fame in 2003, exactly 20 years after her historic flight."/> <link rel="canonical" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sally-ride-ph-d/"/> <meta property="og:locale" content="en_US"/> <meta property="og:type" content="article"/> <meta property="og:title" content="Sally K. Ride, Ph.D. - Academy of Achievement"/> <meta property="og:description" content="<p class="inputTextFirst">Sally Ride was a 27-year-old Ph.D. candidate, looking for postdoctoral work in astrophysics, when an item in the Stanford University newspaper caught her eye. NASA was looking for astronauts. She was one of only six women to be accepted, out of 8,000 applicants. She joined NASA in 1977, and underwent years of rigorous physical and scientific training. In 1983 she became the first American woman in space, flying a six-day mission on the Space Shuttle Challenger.</p> <p class="inputText">Her second mission lasted eight days, contributing to her career total of 343 hours in space. She was scheduled for a third mission at the time of the Challenger explosion in 1986. She served on the presidential commission investigating the accident, and participated in long-term planning at the space agency's headquarters in Washington until her retirement from NASA.</p> <p class="inputText">From 1989, she was a professor of physics at the University of California, San Diego, where her research interests centered on the theory of non-linear beam-wave interactions. She also served as a science fellow of the Center for International Security and Arms Control at Stanford University and as director of the California Space Institute. A passionate advocate for science education, she created the Sally Ride Club and Sally Ride Science Camps to encourage young girls interested in mathematics, science and technology. She was inducted into the Astronaut Hall of Fame in 2003, exactly 20 years after her historic flight.</p>"/> <meta property="og:url" content="https://web.archive.org/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sally-ride-ph-d/"/> <meta property="og:site_name" content="Academy of Achievement"/> <meta property="og:image" content="https://web.archive.org/web/20190111083519im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/ride-2-Feature-Image-2800x1120-1.jpg"/> <meta property="og:image:width" content="2800"/> <meta property="og:image:height" content="1120"/> <meta name="twitter:card" content="summary"/> <meta name="twitter:description" content="<p class="inputTextFirst">Sally Ride was a 27-year-old Ph.D. candidate, looking for postdoctoral work in astrophysics, when an item in the Stanford University newspaper caught her eye. NASA was looking for astronauts. She was one of only six women to be accepted, out of 8,000 applicants. She joined NASA in 1977, and underwent years of rigorous physical and scientific training. In 1983 she became the first American woman in space, flying a six-day mission on the Space Shuttle Challenger.</p> <p class="inputText">Her second mission lasted eight days, contributing to her career total of 343 hours in space. She was scheduled for a third mission at the time of the Challenger explosion in 1986. She served on the presidential commission investigating the accident, and participated in long-term planning at the space agency's headquarters in Washington until her retirement from NASA.</p> <p class="inputText">From 1989, she was a professor of physics at the University of California, San Diego, where her research interests centered on the theory of non-linear beam-wave interactions. She also served as a science fellow of the Center for International Security and Arms Control at Stanford University and as director of the California Space Institute. A passionate advocate for science education, she created the Sally Ride Club and Sally Ride Science Camps to encourage young girls interested in mathematics, science and technology. She was inducted into the Astronaut Hall of Fame in 2003, exactly 20 years after her historic flight.</p>"/> <meta name="twitter:title" content="Sally K. 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container"> <div class="feature-area__text-inner text-white"> <h2 class="serif-8 feature-area__text-subhead back"><a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever">All achievers</a></h2> <h1 class="serif-1 entry-title feature-area__text-headline">Sally K. Ride, Ph.D.</h1> <h5 class="sans-6 feature-area__blurb">First American Woman in Space</h5> </div> </figcaption> </div> </div> </figure> </header> </div>  <nav class="in-page-nav row fixedsticky"> <ul class="nav text-xs-center clearfix" role="tablist"> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link active" data-toggle="tab" href="#biography" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Biography">Biography</a> </li> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link" data-toggle="tab" href="#profile" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Profile">Profile</a> </li> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link" data-toggle="tab" href="#interview" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Interview">Interview</a> </li> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link" data-toggle="tab" href="#gallery" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Gallery">Gallery</a> </li> </ul> </nav> <article class="post-3025 achiever type-achiever status-publish has-post-thumbnail hentry careers-astronaut careers-physicist"> <div class="entry-content container clearfix">  <div class="tab-content"> <div class="tab-pane fade in active" id="biography" role="tabpanel"> <section class="achiever--biography"> <div class="banner clearfix"> <div class="banner--single clearfix"> <div class="col-lg-8 col-lg-offset-2"> <div class="banner__image__container"> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190111083519/https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/what-it-takes/id1025864075?mt=2" target="_blank"> <figure class="ratio-container ratio-container--square bg-black"> <img class="lazyload banner__image" data-src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/WhatItTakes_ride_256-190x190.jpg" alt=""/> </figure> </a> </div> <div class="banner__text__container"> <h3 class="serif-3 banner__headline"> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190111083519/https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/what-it-takes/id1025864075?mt=2" target="_blank"> Listen to this achiever on <i>What It Takes</i> </a> </h3> <p class="sans-6 banner__text m-b-0"><i>What It Takes</i> is an audio podcast on iTunes produced by the American Academy of Achievement featuring intimate, revealing conversations with influential leaders in the diverse fields of endeavor: music, science and exploration, sports, film, technology, literature, the military and social justice.</p> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="row"> <header class="editorial-article__header col-md-8 col-md-offset-2 text-xs-center"> <i class="icon-icon_bio text-brand-primary"></i> <h3 class="serif-3 quote-marks">I have been a bit of a risk-taker all my life.</h3> </header> </div> <div class="row"> <aside class="col-md-4 sidebar clearfix"> <h2 class="serif-3 p-b-1">Astronaut Hall of Fame</h2> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Date of Birth</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> May 26, 1951 </dd> </div> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Date of Death</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> July 23, 2012 </dd> </div> </aside> <article class="editorial-article col-md-8"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><figure id="attachment_38646" style="width: 917px" class="wp-caption alignright"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-38646 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190111083519im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wp-Ride-Sally-Junior-High-Photo.jpg"></noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-38646 lazyload" alt="" width="917" height="1303" data-sizes="(max-width: 917px) 100vw, 917px" data-srcset="/web/20190111083519im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wp-Ride-Sally-Junior-High-Photo.jpg 917w, /web/20190111083519im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wp-Ride-Sally-Junior-High-Photo-267x380.jpg 267w, /web/20190111083519im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wp-Ride-Sally-Junior-High-Photo-535x760.jpg 535w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wp-Ride-Sally-Junior-High-Photo.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Sally Ride attended Portola Junior High before attending Los Angeles prep school Westlake High School for Girls.</figcaption></figure><p class="p1"><span class="s1">Sally Ride was born in Los Angeles, California, and grew up in the suburban community of Encino in the San Fernando Valley. In addition to being an excellent student with a strong interest in science, she was a talented athlete. At age 10, she began playing tennis, a sport at which she particularly excelled. She became a nationally ranked junior tennis player and attended Westlake School for Girls on a tennis scholarship. After graduation, she enrolled at Swarthmore University in Pennsylvania but soon doubted her choice, wondering if she was missing the opportunity for a professional tennis career. Determined to find out, she left Swarthmore after her first year to see how far her tennis game would take her. After three months of intense training, she concluded that she would not have a professional athletic career and enrolled at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. She graduated with bachelor’s degrees in both English and physics, and remained at Stanford to earn a master’s and a Ph.D. in physics. As a graduate student, she carried out research in astrophysics and free-electron laser physics.</span></p> <figure id="attachment_38645" style="width: 1313px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-38645 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190111083519im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wp-Ride-Sally-Photo-with-her-Sister.jpg"></noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-38645 lazyload" alt="" width="1313" height="1943" data-sizes="(max-width: 1313px) 100vw, 1313px" data-srcset="/web/20190111083519im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wp-Ride-Sally-Photo-with-her-Sister.jpg 1313w, /web/20190111083519im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wp-Ride-Sally-Photo-with-her-Sister-257x380.jpg 257w, /web/20190111083519im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wp-Ride-Sally-Photo-with-her-Sister-514x760.jpg 514w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wp-Ride-Sally-Photo-with-her-Sister.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">1978: Ride with younger sister, Rev. Bear Ride. Bear became a minister months after Sally was accepted by NASA.</figcaption></figure><p class="p1"><span class="s1">From childhood, Sally Ride had been fascinated with space exploration, but throughout the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo space flight programs, the ranks of the astronaut corps had been closed to women. From its inception, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) had recruited its astronauts from the ranks of military test pilots. This changed in 1978, when NASA set out to recruit more scientists, including women, for the new Space Shuttle program. At 27, Ride was completing her Ph.D. when she saw an advertisement NASA had placed in the Stanford University newspaper, seeking recruits for the astronaut corps. She saw the opportunity of a lifetime. She was one of more than 8,000 applicants for only 35 positions, but to her astonishment, she made the cut, and was one of only six women accepted for astronaut training that year.</span></p> <figure id="attachment_13065" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><noscript><img class="wp-image-13065 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190111083519im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-007-Ride-Sally-Corbis-BE086000.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-13065 size-full lazyload" alt="Mission specialist Sally Ride, the first American woman sent into space, totes her own luggage following her arrival at the Kennedy Space Center. (© Bettmann/CORBIS)" width="2280" height="3445" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20190111083519im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-007-Ride-Sally-Corbis-BE086000.jpg 2280w, /web/20190111083519im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-007-Ride-Sally-Corbis-BE086000-251x380.jpg 251w, /web/20190111083519im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-007-Ride-Sally-Corbis-BE086000-503x760.jpg 503w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190111083519/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-007-Ride-Sally-Corbis-BE086000.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Mission specialist Sally Ride, the first American woman sent into space, totes her own luggage following her arrival at the Kennedy Space Center. (© Bettmann)</figcaption></figure><p>A year of intensive preparation followed. The new astronaut’s curriculum included parachute jumping, water survival, gravity and weightlessness training, radio communications, navigation and flight instruction. Sally Ride came to enjoy flying so much that it became a lifelong hobby. After her initial training period, Ride served as Communications Officer for the second and third Shuttle flights, relaying radio messages from Mission Control to the crew of the Space Shuttle Columbia. She was also assigned to the team that developed the Shuttle’s mechanical robot arm, designed to deploy and retrieve satellites. Two Russian women had previously orbited the earth as part of the Soviet space program, but when Sally Ride was chosen for the crew of the seventh Shuttle mission, STS-7, the story swept through the news media. Sally Ride would be the first American woman to travel in space.</p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Ride’s mission would be the second flight for the vehicle known as the Challenger, and the first American space mission to carry a crew of five. To the accompaniment of a fanfare of publicity, Sally Ride boarded the Challenger on June 18, 1983, and the Challenger roared from the launch pad and into Earth orbit. Over the course of the six-day mission, the crew used the robot arm in space for the first time, retrieving one satellite from orbit and releasing another. In all, the mission deployed two communications satellites for the governments of Canada and Indonesia. It also conducted the first experiment in formation flying with a satellite in orbit, and carried out a number of experiments in material and pharmaceutical research. The mission ended with a successful landing on the lakebed runway at Edwards Air Force Base in California.</span></p> <figure id="attachment_13076" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-13076 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190111083519im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-018-ride-462928main_GPN-2000-001083_full.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-13076 size-full lazyload" alt="On June 18, 1983, Sally Ride became the first American woman in space as a Mission Specialist on the Challenger Space Shuttle. Ride is shown here operating control panels from the pilot's chair on the flight deck. Image Credit: NASA" width="2280" height="2280" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20190111083519im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-018-ride-462928main_GPN-2000-001083_full.jpg 2280w, /web/20190111083519im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-018-ride-462928main_GPN-2000-001083_full-190x190.jpg 190w, /web/20190111083519im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-018-ride-462928main_GPN-2000-001083_full-380x380.jpg 380w, /web/20190111083519im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-018-ride-462928main_GPN-2000-001083_full-760x760.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190111083519/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-018-ride-462928main_GPN-2000-001083_full.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">On June 18, 1983, Sally Ride became the first American woman in space as a Mission Specialist on the Challenger Space Shuttle. Ride is shown here operating control panels from the pilot’s chair on the flight deck. (NASA)</figcaption></figure><p>Sally Ride returned to space in the Challenger as a mission specialist on Flight STS 41-G on October 5, 1984. This mission’s crew of seven was NASA’s largest yet. The eight-day mission deployed new satellites, made observations of the earth with new large-format cameras and demonstrated a technique of refueling satellites in orbit. The Challenger landed safely at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on October 13, 1984. Over the course of these two missions, Sally Ride had logged more than 343 hours in space.</p> <figure id="attachment_13064" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-13064 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190111083519im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-006-Ride-Sally-Corbis-U830876T.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-13064 size-full lazyload" alt="June 18, 1983: The Challenger is launched into space from Cape Canaveral, Florida. On board is Dr. Sally Ride, America's first woman in space. (© Bettmann/CORBIS)" width="2280" height="3170" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20190111083519im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-006-Ride-Sally-Corbis-U830876T.jpg 2280w, /web/20190111083519im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-006-Ride-Sally-Corbis-U830876T-273x380.jpg 273w, /web/20190111083519im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-006-Ride-Sally-Corbis-U830876T-547x760.jpg 547w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190111083519/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-006-Ride-Sally-Corbis-U830876T.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">June 18, 1983: The Challenger is launched into space from Cape Canaveral, Florida. On board is Dr. Sally K. Ride.</figcaption></figure><p>Ride was eight months into preparation for her next flight in the Challenger when disaster struck. On January 28, 1986, the Challenger fell to pieces a few minutes after take-off. The entire crew, many of them her close friends from training days, perished in the catastrophe. Preparation for further missions was immediately suspended. Ride was appointed to the presidential commission investigating the accident, heading the commission’s subcommittee on operations. When the investigation was complete, Ride was assigned to NASA’s Washington headquarters as Special Assistant to the Administrator for long-range and strategic planning. She led the agency’s first strategic planning effort, and wrote the report “Leadership and America’s Future in Space.” Before leaving NASA in 1987, she founded the agency’s Office of Exploration.</p> <figure id="attachment_13070" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-13070 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190111083519im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-012-s07-14-629.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-13070 size-full lazyload" alt="Sally Ride Becomes First American Woman in Space -- June 18, 1983. This week in 1983, Space Shuttle Challenger and the STS-7 crew launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. With the launch, Mission Specialist Sally Ride became the first American woman to fly in space. The STS-7 crew, the first five-member crew, deployed two communications satellites and conducted experiments from the Shuttle Pallet Satellite. Ride, shown here floating in the Challenger flight deck, later described the launch as "exhilarating, terrifying and overwhelming all at the same time." The NASA History Program is responsible for generating, disseminating, and preserving NASA’s remarkable history and providing a comprehensive understanding of the institutional, cultural, social, political, economic, technological, and scientific aspects of NASA’s activities in aeronautics and space. Image credit: NASA" width="2280" height="1504" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20190111083519im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-012-s07-14-629.jpg 2280w, /web/20190111083519im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-012-s07-14-629-380x251.jpg 380w, /web/20190111083519im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-012-s07-14-629-760x501.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190111083519/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-012-s07-14-629.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">In 1983, Space Shuttle Challenger and the STS-7 crew launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Mission specialist Sally Ride became the first American woman to fly in space. The STS-7 crew, the first five-member crew, deployed two communications satellites and conducted experiments. Ride, shown here floating in the Challenger flight deck, described the launch as “exhilarating, terrifying and overwhelming all at the same time.” (NASA)</figcaption></figure><p>For the first two years after leaving NASA, Ride was a science fellow at Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Arms Control. In 1989 she was appointed professor of physics at the University of California, San Diego, and director of the University’s California Space Institute. Under Ride’s leadership, CalSpace, as it is familiarly called, conducted and supported space research with a special emphasis on the application of space technology in the practice of remote sensing and in the study of global climate change. As a research scientist, her work centered on the theory of non-linear beam-wave interactions.</p> <figure id="attachment_13060" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-13060 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190111083519im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-002-Ride-Sally-Getty-51502044_10.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-13060 size-full lazyload" alt="The crew of the Space Shuttle Challenger's 1983 mission STS-7. Sally Ride (L), crew commander Robert Crippen (center), pilot Frederick Hauck (R) and mission specialists John Fabian and Norman Thagard. (AFP/Getty Images)" width="2280" height="1676" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20190111083519im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-002-Ride-Sally-Getty-51502044_10.jpg 2280w, /web/20190111083519im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-002-Ride-Sally-Getty-51502044_10-380x279.jpg 380w, /web/20190111083519im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-002-Ride-Sally-Getty-51502044_10-760x559.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190111083519/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-002-Ride-Sally-Getty-51502044_10.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">The crew of the Space Shuttle Challenger’s 1983 Mission STS-7. Sally Ride (L), crew commander Robert Crippen (center), pilot Frederick Hauck (R) and mission specialists John Fabian and Norman Thagard. (AFP/Getty Images)</figcaption></figure><p>Over the years, Sally Ride became concerned with the under-representation of women in the sciences. Since boys and girls display an equal enthusiasm for science in the early grades, Ride focused her efforts on the promotion of science in the middle grades, when girls in particular often drift away from the study of science. She wrote a number of books on space exploration for younger readers, including her memoir, <i>To Space and Back</i>, <i>The Third Planet: Exploring the Earth from Space</i>, <i>Exploring Our Solar System</i>, <i>Voyager: An Adventure to the Edge of the Solar System </i>and <i>The Mystery of Mars</i>.</p> <figure id="attachment_13063" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-13063 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190111083519im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-005-Ride-Sally-Corbis-AX932185.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-13063 size-full lazyload" alt="Sally Ride and her fellow astronaut, Challenger pilot Frederick Hauck, laugh during a press conference at Edwards Air Force Base, 1983. (© Douglas Kirkland/CORBIS)" width="2280" height="1514" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20190111083519im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-005-Ride-Sally-Corbis-AX932185.jpg 2280w, /web/20190111083519im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-005-Ride-Sally-Corbis-AX932185-380x252.jpg 380w, /web/20190111083519im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-005-Ride-Sally-Corbis-AX932185-760x505.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190111083519/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-005-Ride-Sally-Corbis-AX932185.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Sally Ride and Challenger pilot Frederick Hauck laugh during a press conference at Edwards Air Force Base, 1983.</figcaption></figure><p class="p1"><span class="s1">In 1999 and 2000, Ride served as president of Space.com, a website concerning all aspects of the space industry. She then initiated NASA’s Internet-based EarthKAM project, enabling middle school students to shoot and download images of the earth from space.</span></p> <figure id="attachment_13087" style="width: 1228px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-13087 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190111083519im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-028-ride-713714main_zuber-2-full_full.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-13087 size-full lazyload" alt="This image shows Sally Ride, America's first woman in space, who was also part of NASA's Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission. Ride led the Moon Knowledge Acquired by Middle school students (MoonKAM) project, which allowed students nationwide to target lunar images to be taken by Ebb and Flow, the two GRAIL spacecraft. Image Credit: Sally Ride Science" width="1228" height="1818" data-sizes="(max-width: 1228px) 100vw, 1228px" data-srcset="/web/20190111083519im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-028-ride-713714main_zuber-2-full_full.jpg 1228w, /web/20190111083519im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-028-ride-713714main_zuber-2-full_full-257x380.jpg 257w, /web/20190111083519im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-028-ride-713714main_zuber-2-full_full-513x760.jpg 513w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190111083519/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-028-ride-713714main_zuber-2-full_full.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Sally Ride, America’s first woman in space, who was also part of NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission. Sally Ride led the Moon Knowledge Acquired by Middle School Students (MoonKAM) project, which allowed students nationwide to target lunar images to be taken by Ebb and Flow, the two GRAIL spacecraft.</figcaption></figure><p class="p1"><span class="s1">Tragedy befell the American space program again in 2003, when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated on reentering the atmosphere. Once again, the entire crew was lost, and a government commission was formed to investigate the calamity. Sally Ride was the only member of the previous Challenger Commission to join the Space Shuttle Columbia Accident Investigation Board. </span><span class="s1">Sally Ride took a leave from the University of California to focus on her role as president and CEO of Sally Ride Science, a company she founded to create entertaining science programs and publications for students in middle school and the upper grades of elementary school. An important element of the company’s mission was supporting girls whose interests lie in science, math and technology. It sponsored Sally Ride Clubs for girls at schools across the country and Sally Ride Science Camps at a number of college campuses.</span></p> <figure id="attachment_41526" style="width: 1360px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-41526 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190111083519im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/wp-chicago_1067_JFR.jpg"></noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-41526 lazyload" alt="" width="1360" height="1360" data-sizes="(max-width: 1360px) 100vw, 1360px" data-srcset="/web/20190111083519im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/wp-chicago_1067_JFR.jpg 1360w, /web/20190111083519im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/wp-chicago_1067_JFR-190x190.jpg 190w, /web/20190111083519im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/wp-chicago_1067_JFR-380x380.jpg 380w, /web/20190111083519im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/wp-chicago_1067_JFR-760x760.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/wp-chicago_1067_JFR.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">2004: Physicist and astronaut Dr. Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, addresses the Academy delegates.</figcaption></figure><p class="p1"><span class="s1">As great as were her own accomplishments in space exploration and astrophysics, Sally Ride’s most enduring legacy may lie in the cumulative achievement of subsequent generations of young scientists, male and female, that she fostered and inspired. Sally Ride died of cancer in 2012, at the age of 61. The year following her death, she was posthumously awarded the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.</span></p> <figure id="attachment_58812" style="width: 2048px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-58812 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190111083519im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/etC-_Users_eterrado_Desktop_wp-albright-chicago_1211_JFR.jpg"></noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-58812 lazyload" alt="" width="2048" height="1360" data-sizes="(max-width: 2048px) 100vw, 2048px" data-srcset="/web/20190111083519im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/etC-_Users_eterrado_Desktop_wp-albright-chicago_1211_JFR.jpg 2048w, /web/20190111083519im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/etC-_Users_eterrado_Desktop_wp-albright-chicago_1211_JFR-380x252.jpg 380w, /web/20190111083519im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/etC-_Users_eterrado_Desktop_wp-albright-chicago_1211_JFR-760x505.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/etC-_Users_eterrado_Desktop_wp-albright-chicago_1211_JFR.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Awards Council member and Olympic skating gold medalist Dr. Tenley Albright presents the Golden Plate Award to Dr. Sally K. Ride, member of the Astronaut Hall of Fame, at the 2004 International Achievement Summit in Chicago.</figcaption></figure></body></html> <div class="clearfix"> </div> </article> </div> </section> </div> <div class="tab-pane fade" id="profile" role="tabpanel"> <section class="clearfix"> <header class="editorial-article__header"> <figure class="text-xs-center"> <img class="inductee-badge" src="/web/20190111083519im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/inducted-badge@2x.png" alt="Inducted Badge" width="120" height="120"/> <figcaption class="serif-3 text-brand-primary"> Inducted in 2004 </figcaption> </figure> </header> <div class="row"> <aside class="col-md-4 sidebar"> <dl class="clearfix m-b-0"> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Career</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> <div><a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/#filter=.astronaut">Astronaut</a></div> <div><a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/#filter=.physicist">Physicist</a></div> </dd> </div> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Date of Birth</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> May 26, 1951 </dd> </div> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Date of Death</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> July 23, 2012 </dd> </div> </dl> </aside> <article class="col-md-8 editorial-article clearfix"> <p class="inputTextFirst">Sally Ride was a 27-year-old Ph.D. candidate, looking for postdoctoral work in astrophysics, when an item in the Stanford University newspaper caught her eye. NASA was looking for astronauts. She was one of only six women to be accepted, out of 8,000 applicants. She joined NASA in 1977, and underwent years of rigorous physical and scientific training. In 1983 she became the first American woman in space, flying a six-day mission on the Space Shuttle Challenger.</p> <p class="inputText">Her second mission lasted eight days, contributing to her career total of 343 hours in space. She was scheduled for a third mission at the time of the Challenger explosion in 1986. She served on the presidential commission investigating the accident, and participated in long-term planning at the space agency’s headquarters in Washington until her retirement from NASA.</p> <p class="inputText">From 1989, she was a professor of physics at the University of California, San Diego, where her research interests centered on the theory of non-linear beam-wave interactions. She also served as a science fellow of the Center for International Security and Arms Control at Stanford University and as director of the California Space Institute. A passionate advocate for science education, she created the Sally Ride Club and Sally Ride Science Camps to encourage young girls interested in mathematics, science and technology. She was inducted into the Astronaut Hall of Fame in 2003, exactly 20 years after her historic flight.</p> </article> </div> </section> </div> <div class="tab-pane fade" id="interview" role="tabpanel"> <section class="clearfix"> <div class="col-md-12 interview-feature-video"> <figure> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190111083519if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/WcRJI_mnusk?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light&start=0&end=1843&version=3" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Ride-Sally-2006-MasterEdit.00_12_46_04.Still008-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Ride-Sally-2006-MasterEdit.00_12_46_04.Still008-760x428.jpg"></div> <div class="video-tag sans-4"> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> <div class="video-tag__text">Watch full interview</div> </div> </div> </figure> </div> <header class="col-md-12 text-xs-center m-b-2"> <i class="icon-icon_bio text-brand-primary"></i> </header> <aside class="col-md-4 sidebar"> <h2 class="serif-3 achiever--biography-subtitle">Astronaut Hall of Fame</h2> <div class="sans-2">Los Angeles, California</div> <div class="sans-2">June 2, 2006</div> </aside> <article class="editorial-article col-md-8">   <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p><strong>Was there a moment, an epiphany, a flash of lightning, when you decided what you wanted to do with your life?</strong></p> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190111083519if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/XJV_qUi0jiw?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Ride-Sally-2006-MasterEdit.00_16_05_04.Still011-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Ride-Sally-2006-MasterEdit.00_16_05_04.Still011-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/keys-to-success/passion/">Passion</a> </figcaption> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p>I was literally just a couple of months away from getting my Ph.D. in physics when I saw, believe it or not, an ad in the Stanford student newspaper, that had been put in the newspaper by NASA, saying that they were accepting applications for astronauts, and the moment I saw that, I knew that that’s what I wanted to do. Not that I wanted to leave physics, I loved it, but I wanted to apply to the astronaut corps and see whether NASA would take me, and see whether I could have the opportunity to go on that adventure.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><p><strong>Had they ever taken a woman?</strong></p> <p>Sally Ride: They had never taken a woman. One of the reasons that they were putting ads in student newspapers was that, first of all, they hadn’t taken any astronauts in about 10 years, so they needed to get the word out. More importantly, it was the first time they were planning to bring women into the astronaut corps, and they knew that unless they put announcements in places that qualified women would see them, they would get just the usual suspects of white male military test pilots applying to the program. So this was the first time that they were bringing in women.</p> <figure id="attachment_13082" style="width: 2000px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-13082 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190111083519im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-024-ride-668675main_ride7_full_full.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-13082 size-full lazyload" alt="On June 15, 1983, three days before launch aboard Space Shuttle Challenger, Sally Ride takes a last look at Houston before taking off in a T-38 jet, bound for NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. After a few days of preparation at KSC, Dr. Ride and four other astronauts became the first NASA five-member crew to fly in space as they lifted off in the Challenger from Launch Pad 39A. Image Credit: NASA" width="2000" height="1316" data-sizes="(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px" data-srcset="/web/20190111083519im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-024-ride-668675main_ride7_full_full.jpg 2000w, /web/20190111083519im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-024-ride-668675main_ride7_full_full-380x250.jpg 380w, /web/20190111083519im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-024-ride-668675main_ride7_full_full-760x500.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190111083519/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-024-ride-668675main_ride7_full_full.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">On June 15, 1983, three days before launch aboard Space Shuttle Challenger, Sally Ride takes a last look at Houston before taking off in a T-38 jet, bound for NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. After a few days of preparation at KSC, Dr. Ride and four other astronauts became the first NASA five-member crew to fly in space.</figcaption></figure><p><strong>Had you ever flown anything before?</strong></p></body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190111083519if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/WtBGkhM-c8g?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light&start=0&end=40&version=3" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Ride-Sally-2006-MasterEdit.00_06_32_29.Still004-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Ride-Sally-2006-MasterEdit.00_06_32_29.Still004-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/keys-to-success/preparation/">Preparation</a> </figcaption> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p>I had never flown anything, not a thing. I had flown in very large airplanes, but I had never flown anything. But NASA was looking for — you know, the astronaut corps at that time was still primarily test pilots, but they had some scientists in the corps, and they had made it clear that with the Space Shuttle program, they actually needed an astronaut corps that was more than 50 percent scientists and engineers, less than 50 percent test pilots, so they made it very, very clear that they wanted people with science and engineering backgrounds, and that the test pilot or even a pilot background was not required, they’d teach us everything we needed to know about that.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><p><strong>What were the odds of your being selected for that program?</strong></p> <p>Sally Ride: They were pretty darned small. There were about 8,000 of us who applied, and out of that, NASA picked 35 of us to be the first Space Shuttle astronaut class.</p> <figure id="attachment_13066" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-13066 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190111083519im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-008-Ride-Sally-Corbis-U830955-1.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-13066 size-full lazyload" alt="Sally Ride communicates with ground control from the flight deck of the Earth-orbiting Space Shuttle Challenger. (© Bettmann/CORBIS)" width="2280" height="1794" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20190111083519im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-008-Ride-Sally-Corbis-U830955-1.jpg 2280w, /web/20190111083519im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-008-Ride-Sally-Corbis-U830955-1-380x299.jpg 380w, /web/20190111083519im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-008-Ride-Sally-Corbis-U830955-1-760x598.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190111083519/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-008-Ride-Sally-Corbis-U830955-1.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Sally Ride communicates with ground control from the flight deck of the Earth-orbiting Space Shuttle Challenger.</figcaption></figure><p><strong>And you were the young woman who did not want to be called on in class?</strong></p> <p>Sally Ride: Exactly! Yes! And who has since had to learn how to do television interviews.</p> <p><strong>Were you surprised to be chosen?</strong></p></body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190111083519if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/6NpZobx_xIU?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Ride-Sally-2006-MasterEdit.00_15_07_06.Still009-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Ride-Sally-2006-MasterEdit.00_15_07_06.Still009-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/keys-to-success/preparation/">Preparation</a> </figcaption> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p>I was surprised to be chosen. I was fairly certain that I would make it a reasonably long way in the selection process, because I was pretty well qualified to apply. I was going to have a Ph.D. by the time the selection process was over, and I had a good athletic background, which NASA — they don’t necessarily look for an athletic background, but they look for a variety of different backgrounds that show that you have got a variety of interests and particularly showed that you can collaborate well with people, work as part of a team, communicate with people. So I knew that I had a reasonable chance to go a reasonable distance in the selection process, but I didn’t think for a minute that I was going to be selected.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p><strong>Was it tougher for a woman in that first class that accepted women?</strong></p> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190111083519if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/MWAOMSMYcUg?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Ride-Sally-2006-MasterEdit.00_07_44_05.Still006-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Ride-Sally-2006-MasterEdit.00_07_44_05.Still006-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p>It was tougher for a woman, but the reason was really the surrounding culture at the time, the culture at NASA, at the Johnson Space Center, and also the culture in the country. It wasn’t more difficult, interestingly, within the astronaut office itself, the women and men. First of all, the group of 35 of us who were selected included six women, so not just one but six, a little bit of security in numbers, and the 29 men who were selected as part of that group were actually accustomed to working with women. One had had a Ph.D. thesis advisor who was a female physics professor, so they were not unaccustomed to the concept. So we had a peer group that was very supportive and didn’t think that it was that unusual. However, our whole group was set into this culture where it was very unusual. Out of roughly 4,000 technical employees at the Johnson Space Center — 4,000 or so scientists and engineers — I think there were only four women, so that gives you a sense of how male the culture was. When we arrived, we more than doubled the number of women with Ph.D.s at the center.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><figure id="attachment_13077" style="width: 2000px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-13077 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190111083519im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-019-ride-668579main_ride1_full_full.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-13077 size-full lazyload" alt="Some of NASA's first female astronaut candidates take a break from training in Florida in 1978. From left: Sally Ride, Judith Resnik, Anna Fisher, Kathryn Sullivan, Rhea Seddon. Image Credit: NASA" width="2000" height="1278" data-sizes="(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px" data-srcset="/web/20190111083519im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-019-ride-668579main_ride1_full_full.jpg 2000w, /web/20190111083519im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-019-ride-668579main_ride1_full_full-380x243.jpg 380w, /web/20190111083519im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-019-ride-668579main_ride1_full_full-760x486.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190111083519/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-019-ride-668579main_ride1_full_full.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">1978: Some of NASA’s first female astronaut candidates take a break at training in Kennedy Space Center, Florida.</figcaption></figure><p><strong>What did your family and friends think when you applied to the astronaut program?</strong></p> <p>Sally Ride: They were very, very supportive. I had a lot of friends who also applied to the astronaut program, so they understood completely why I wanted to do it. My parents at least gave the impression that they were very supportive and very excited, and I am positive my father was. I am less positive about my mother, but I think both of them were very excited and very supportive.</p> <p><strong>Why exactly did you want to do this?</strong></p> <p>Sally Ride: It’s something that was just deep inside me. There is really no other way to describe it. The moment I saw the opportunity, I knew that that is what I wanted to do. I can’t explain why I wanted to do it, it’s just something that was part of me.</p> <p><strong>Can you trace it back to those black and white pictures on television?</strong></p> <p>Sally Ride: Probably so. I was fascinated by those. I remember where I was watching Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon, as all of us who were alive and watching television in those days do, but I was really taken by those pictures.</p> <figure id="attachment_13079" style="width: 2000px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-13079 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190111083519im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-021-ride-668613main_ride3_full_full.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-13079 size-full lazyload" alt="Sally Ride and three of her STS-7 crewmates take a break from simulations in the Johnson Space Center's Mission Simulation and Training Facility to pose for a NASA photographer. Standing on the steps leading into the motion-based Shuttle Mission Simulator (SMS) are (left to right) astronauts Robert L. Crippen, John M. Fabian, Frederick H. Hauck and Sally K. Ride. Image Credit: NASA" width="2000" height="1310" data-sizes="(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px" data-srcset="/web/20190111083519im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-021-ride-668613main_ride3_full_full.jpg 2000w, /web/20190111083519im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-021-ride-668613main_ride3_full_full-380x249.jpg 380w, /web/20190111083519im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-021-ride-668613main_ride3_full_full-760x498.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190111083519/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-021-ride-668613main_ride3_full_full.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Sally Ride and three of her STS-7 crewmates take a break from simulations in the Johnson Space Center’s Mission Simulation and Training Facility. Standing on the steps leading into the motion-based Shuttle Mission Simulator (SMS) are (left to right) astronauts Robert L. Crippen, John M. Fabian, Frederick H. Hauck and Sally K. Ride. (NASA)</figcaption></figure><p><strong>How hard was it to become an astronaut?</strong></p></body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190111083519if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/zEa29ARL5KE?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light&start=0&end=38&version=3" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Ride-Sally-2006-MasterEdit.00_12_46_04.Still008-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Ride-Sally-2006-MasterEdit.00_12_46_04.Still008-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/keys-to-success/perseverance/">Perseverance</a> </figcaption> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p>It was hard to become an astronaut. It was hard to make it through the selection process and the training itself was very difficult, not anywhere near as much physical training as people imagine, but a lot of mental training, a lot of learning. You have to learn everything there is to know about the Space Shuttle and everything you are going to be doing, and everything you need to know if something goes wrong, and then once you have learned it all, you have to practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice until everything is second nature, so it’s a very, very difficult training, and it takes years.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p><strong>Did you ever have self-doubts, or fear of failure that you weren’t going to be able to do this?</strong></p> <p>Sally Ride: Actually, I didn’t. I am not quite sure what that says, but I didn’t.</p> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190111083519if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/VR49wwr8u0Y?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Ride-Sally-2006-MasterEdit.00_06_32_29.Still004-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Ride-Sally-2006-MasterEdit.00_06_32_29.Still004-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p>I didn’t have any doubts that that was what I wanted to be doing, and I didn’t have any doubts that I would be able to do it. Up until that point, up until I joined the astronaut corps, you could say I was a professional student. I had made it through high school, undergraduate, graduate school, to a Ph.D., so I knew how to learn things. I knew how to study, I knew how to concentrate and to dedicate myself to learning one particular area, and that’s what I was doing again, so I was fairly confident and comfortable actually in the environment.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><figure id="attachment_13071" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-13071 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190111083519im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-013-ride-s83-35620-3k.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-13071 size-full lazyload" alt="On June 18, 1983, Sally Ride became the first American woman in space when the Space Shuttle Challenger launched from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The crew consisted of astronauts Robert Crippen, commander, the first two-time space shuttle astronaut; Frederick H. Hauck, pilot; and three mission specialists -- Ride, John M. Fabian and Norman E. Thagard. Image Credit: NASA" width="2280" height="2261" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20190111083519im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-013-ride-s83-35620-3k.jpg 2280w, /web/20190111083519im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-013-ride-s83-35620-3k-380x377.jpg 380w, /web/20190111083519im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-013-ride-s83-35620-3k-760x754.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190111083519/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-013-ride-s83-35620-3k.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">On June 18, 1983, Sally Ride became the first American woman in space when the Space Shuttle Challenger launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The crew consisted of astronauts Robert Crippen, commander; Frederick H. Hauck, pilot; and mission specialists — Sally Ride, John Fabian and Norman Thagard.</figcaption></figure><p><strong>Did you think of yourself as a trailblazer or as a pioneer, not just in space, but for women in space?</strong></p> <p>Sally Ride: You know, I didn’t.</p></body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190111083519if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/7-4SuayeVv0?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light&start=0&end=72&version=3" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Ride-Sally-2006-MasterEdit.00_02_40_07.Still001-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Ride-Sally-2006-MasterEdit.00_02_40_07.Still001-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p>We all knew that the six of us were the first six women to enter the astronaut corps; we were very well aware of that. We realized that this was a significant breakthrough and that to some extent, we were pioneers and trailblazers, but I have to say that I don’t think I appreciated how much of a trailblazer I was for women and how much women would look up to me as a role model and the things that I had done until after my first flight, after I landed, partly because while I was in training, I was pretty well insulated by NASA. They wanted me in training. They wanted me to learn what I was supposed to learn. They didn’t want me out talking to reporters and the press and the public. So I was not unaware. I read newspapers, I watched television, but I wasn’t face to face with women until I came back from my flight, and then it hit home pretty hard how important it was to an awful lot of women in the country.</p> </div> </div>     <aside class="collapse" id="full-interview">    <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p><strong>What did you think NASA saw in you that they didn’t see in the others, when they chose you to be the first American woman in space?</strong></p> <p>Sally Ride: That’s hard to say. I think that I had a lot of the qualities that they were looking for in any astronaut that they select. An understanding of the importance of teamwork and ability to learn things, an ability to recognize a role as a member of a team. Sort of an ability to do things carefully, go through a checklist, make sure that you have done, in science, the experiment correctly in space, gone through the experiment or the checklist correctly. I have no idea why they chose me among the six of us to be the first American woman to get a chance to go into space. That’s one of the things that NASA does very well, is keep its secrets on how it selects crews. None of us know why we were selected for any given crew. So I know that the commander of the flight, Bob Crippen, had some input into that decision, but he didn’t get to decide, and I have no idea how that decision was made. I’d love to know.</p> <p><strong>What was your reaction when you learned you would be the first American woman in space?</strong></p> <p>Sally Ride: I was ecstatic. I was thrilled, and my first reaction was probably identical to the reaction of the other four members of the crew who were told that same day. We could not believe that we got our chance to go into space. We were the first four from our astronaut class to get to go, and so we had been in training for four years at that time, building up to this point, and the moment that we were told, it was, “Oh my gosh, I can’t believe that I get a chance to do this.” And it was only after that, not long after that, but after that, that I thought, “Oh my gosh, I am going to be the first woman to get to go up, representing this country.”</p> <p><strong>How much pressure is there, not just on you as a woman, but on any astronaut put in that position, being tapped to go into space?</strong></p> <p>Sally Ride: There’s a huge amount of pressure on every astronaut, because when you get right down to it, the experiments that are conducted on a space flight, or the satellites that are carried up, the work that’s to be done, is important and expensive work, and you are up there for a week or two on a Space Shuttle flight. The country has invested a lot of money in you and your training, and the Space Shuttle and everything that’s in it, and you have to do things correctly. You can’t make a mistake during that week or two that you’re in space. Anything from making a mistake on an experiment that would ruin some scientist on Earth’s experiment — career, potentially — to doing something wrong with the satellite that a country was depending on for its communications, to making some mistake that could actually cost you and the crew either a mission or your lives. So there is a lot of pressure that’s put on every astronaut to just make sure that he or she understands exactly what to do, exactly when to do it, and is trained and prepared to carry it out.</p> <p><strong>You were able to handle that pressure. It sounds like a lot of pressure.</strong></p> <p>Sally Ride: It was a lot of pressure, but it was worth every second of it.</p> <p><strong>How do you deal with it?</strong></p> <p>Sally Ride: I didn’t think so much about the pressure. I thought that if I focused on being as prepared as I could, and being as prepared as I thought I needed to be, then I would be able to handle it, I would be able to handle the tasks, and that kind of takes care of the pressure automatically.</p> <p><strong>You must have been asked this a thousand times, but what is it like up there in space? What were you thinking when you weren’t entirely preoccupied with experiments?</strong></p> <p>Sally Ride: It’s absolutely unbelievable, and unfortunately, indescribable. The view of Earth is absolutely spectacular, and the feeling of looking back and seeing your planet as a planet is just an amazing feeling. It’s a totally different perspective, and it makes you appreciate, actually, how fragile our existence is. You can look at Earth’s horizon and see this really, really thin royal blue line right along the horizon, and at first you don’t really quite internalize what that is, and then you realize that it’s Earth’s atmosphere, and that that’s all there is of it, and it’s about as thick as the fuzz on a tennis ball, and it’s everything that separates us from the vacuum of space. If we didn’t have that atmosphere, we wouldn’t be here, and if we do anything to destroy that atmosphere, we won’t be here. So it really puts the planet in perspective.</p> <p><strong>You flew Challenger I and Challenger II. I remember the day that Challenger III exploded. I am sure you do too. What was going through your mind then?</strong></p> <p>Sally Ride: It was a blow both professionally, as you can imagine, to everyone in the astronaut corps, but also personally. Four of the astronauts who were killed in the Challenger explosion were part of our group of 35 astronauts, part of that astronaut class. So, these were people that, at that time, I had known for eight years. I’d worked with them every day, I’d gone to dinner at their houses, I knew their families. So they were very, very close, close friends. My then husband had been on the flight before the Challenger accident, and I was scheduled to go about two months after the Challenger accident. So it hit me very personally, just to lose friends and to think about what might have been. Of course, it was a huge blow professionally, because I think that astronauts understand very well what the risks are of flying in space, but we all also have a real trust and faith in NASA, and the process that it goes through to minimize those risks to the extent possible, and as the investigation unfolded, it became very clear that that system had broken down, and that that system that we trusted to track down any flaw or any piece of bad test data really had failed.</p> <p><strong>Having had this extraordinary experience, what was life like after space?</strong></p> <p>Sally Ride: Well, there is life after NASA. One of the things that I realized while I was in the astronaut corps, and after I had been on my second flight, was how much I really did love science and physics. I had known, even when I went into the astronaut corps, that I would leave someday. NASA’s model is astronauts leave after about seven years, and then go on with their lives. That is how they model their recruiting efforts. I had planned to go back into physics and to become a physicist, and after five or six years in the astronaut corps, I realized that that was important to me. I had actually planned to leave NASA after my third flight, which I never had an opportunity to take because of the Challenger accident, but I had planned to go back into academia, into physics research and physics teaching. So it was almost as if that phase of my life had come to a conclusion. I was ready to move on at that time.</p> <p><strong>There’s an old joke, “It doesn’t take a rocket scientist.” But what does it take to be a rocket scientist?</strong></p> <p>Sally Ride: It takes the same thing that it takes to be a lot of different things. It takes a love of the subject and it takes a willingness to put in the time to learn the subject and to really be able to make a contribution.</p> <p><strong>It must be harder than that.</strong></p> <p>Sally Ride: Ah, not really.</p> <p><strong>To begin at the beginning, what was your childhood like, growing up in Southern California?</strong></p> <p>Sally Ride: Well, my childhood was probably the typical childhood for a kid growing up in Southern California in the ’50s and early ’60s. I loved being outside, I loved being active. I loved swimming, I loved playing tennis, I loved playing baseball in the street, and as it turns out, I also liked science and math, and I was probably fortunate in that both of my parents really valued education and they didn’t have any sort of preconception on what sort of field I should go into. So they made sure that I spent plenty of time studying, but also trying to make it fun and trying to make it entertaining and trying to make me appreciate that it was a good way to get ahead in the world.</p> <p><strong>Were there a lot of preconceptions in that era about what you should be doing?</strong></p> <p>Sally Ride: There were a lot of preconceptions back then. I think that, whether in sports or whether in career choice, there were definitely preconceptions that girls didn’t participate in sports other than swimming and tennis and golf. They probably didn’t like them, or they would probably get hurt playing them or something, and that women didn’t go on to become lawyers or doctors, much less scientists or engineers, and my parents, I think, were unusual in that they didn’t hold those preconceptions.</p> <p><strong>Were you a good kid?</strong></p> <p>Sally Ride: I was a pretty good kid. I had my moments, but I was a pretty good kid.</p> <p><strong>How did you like school when you were growing up?</strong></p> <p>Sally Ride: I liked some classes, I didn’t like others. I looked forward to getting out of school every day, and getting onto the playground or getting home to play with my friends, but I didn’t really mind going to school as much as some of my classmates did and as much as a lot of kids do.</p> <p><strong>What was difficult for you growing up?</strong></p> <p>Sally Ride: If you want to talk about school, history and English were difficult for me, science and math were easy. I was a quiet kid when I was growing up, and so I didn’t really like to be called on in class. I think that my most stressful moments were probably sitting in class, huddled down, hoping that the teacher didn’t notice me and call on me. Whether I knew the answer or not, that was irrelevant.</p> <p><strong>How do you account for that?</strong></p> <p>Sally Ride: I have no idea whether I am an introvert by nature or whether it was something to do with the times when I was growing up. Who knows? It was definitely true while I was in elementary school and middle school and even a little bit into high school.</p> <p><strong>In your recollection, were there teachers or events that inspired you or challenged you when you were growing up, that were important to you in one way or another?</strong></p> <p>Sally Ride: There were teachers along the way. I can think of three teachers that were very influential, and there were some events that were very influential. I was growing up in the early days of the space program, and I can still remember teachers wheeling those big old black and white television sets into the classroom, so that we could watch some of the early space launches and splashdowns, and that made a real impact on me, as I think it did a lot of kids growing up at the time. I thought a lot about what it would be like to be on a rocket and what it would be like to be in space when I was 12 years old.</p> <p><strong>Were any of your girlfriends thinking about those things?</strong></p> <p>Sally Ride: It’s interesting. I think a lot were. A lot of my girlfriends liked science as much as I did, especially at age 8, 9, 10, 11. We were all fascinated by the space program in one way or another, but I think that most of my friends ran into some obstacle or deterrent along the way that sent them off in different directions. It might have been a teacher, it might have been a counselor, it might have been a parent, it might have been a peer group. I was probably very fortunate not to run into those deterrents while I was impressionable and growing up.</p> <p><strong>What was it about these three teachers that you remember?</strong></p> <p>Sally Ride: The two who were most influential were high school science teachers. One taught physiology and one taught chemistry, and what was so important to me was not that they were good science teachers, they were, but I had plenty of other good teachers growing up. What was important to me was that they helped me build my confidence in myself, my self-esteem, and I needed that like lots of kids need it, and they basically said, “Look, you know, if you were good in math in sixth grade, you are going to be good in math in 12th grade, you are going to be good in math in college. You don’t get dumber as you get older,” and I needed to hear that and just have that confidence in myself that yes, I was smart enough to go on to college, and smart enough to go on and do whatever I was interested in, in college.</p> <p><strong>Were there any books that were important to you?</strong></p> <p>Sally Ride: There was that all-time classic <em>Danny Dunn and the Anti-Gravity Machine</em>. I actually read a lot when I was growing up. I read all of the Nancy Drew mysteries when I was young. I read, as I said, the Danny Dunn series of science books. I read comic books, I read <em>Mad</em> magazine, and I also read <em>Scientific American</em>. My parents were not scientists and probably had no idea how to encourage a kid who was interested in science, so they decided, well, <em>Scientific American</em> would be a good thing to have in the house, so they subscribed to that. I remember reading that when I was 13, 14, 15, and I think that those are probably my strongest, strongest memories.</p> <p><strong>You were also a tennis player, weren’t you?</strong></p> <p>Sally Ride: I was a good tennis player. I really enjoyed being outside. I really enjoyed playing sports and started playing tennis when I was about 11 and really got hooked on it, played in tournaments, first locally in Southern California, and then later, nationally, and spent every summer playing pretty serious tennis.</p> <p><strong>Did you ever consider that to be a career?</strong></p> <p>Sally Ride: Actually, I did, much to the dismay of my parents, I think, although they were both very supportive of tennis. When I headed off to college, I made the decision that tennis wasn’t going to be the central point in my life. I went off to Swarthmore and started college at Swarthmore College, and about a year and a half into my college experience, I decided, “What was I thinking? I should have been a professional tennis player,” and I quit college, and that did not go over well with my parents, but I quit school and moved back to Southern California, and actually focused on tennis for about three months before I saw the light and transferred to Stanford, went back to school.</p> <p><strong>What was that like, leaving college?</strong></p> <p>Sally Ride: I was going to say it was one of those impulsive decisions, but it really wasn’t. I had this very, very strong feeling that I had something in me that I hadn’t really explored, and it was, “How good a tennis player could I be? Could I be good enough to be a professional tennis player? There is no way I am going to find this out at Swarthmore College, and if I wait until after I graduate, it will likely be too late.” So I thought about it for several weeks pretty seriously, because it was mid-year when I actually quit college, it was after the fall semester. But I was completely committed to doing that when I packed my bags and headed home. But fortunately, I took a long, hard look at my forehand and realized that I was not going to make a fortune with that forehand.</p> <p><strong>What did you do next?</strong></p> <p>Sally Ride: I transferred to Stanford, which was closer to home, but also had the advantage that I could play tennis while I was at Stanford, as well as being excellent academically. So I started at Stanford the next fall, and declared a physics major and played on the tennis team, so I was a happy student.</p> <p><strong>Weren’t you both a physics and an English major? Those things don’t often go together.</strong></p> <p>Sally Ride: No, they don’t. I was a physics major actually from almost the first day that I walked in the door at Swarthmore, and I was certainly a physics major — declared a physics major — when I first got to Stanford. But about midway through my junior year at Stanford, I had been taking so many physics and chemistry and math courses, which were all required for a physics major, that I just needed some courses, almost to regain my sanity, get a little more balance into my life, and I started taking English courses pretty much on a whim. I had a friend who was an English major and so I decided to go ahead and try a couple of English classes, and I really enjoyed them. It turned out that I kept taking the English classes, had a focus on Shakespearean literature, and ended up with enough units to also have a major in English.</p> <p><strong>Do you think Shakespearean drama helped you as an astronaut?</strong></p> <p>Sally Ride: I am certain that it did.</p> <p><strong>You have concentrated on several different things since leaving the space program, but one of them is to make what you have done seem more accessible to young women.</strong></p> <p>Sally Ride: Yeah, that’s absolutely right. In the years since my flight, I had the opportunity to talk to lots and lots and lots of groups, including elementary school kids, high school kids, college students, women’s groups, and what I realized in doing that was that there were a lot of young girls and young women who were very, very interested in science, just like I was when I was growing up, and that that number, the number of those girls was rather large in elementary school. In fact, it seemed to be that about the same number of girls as boys showed an interest in the space program, in science, but that by the time they got to high school and college, if I would go to talk to a physics class, I would see that the number of women in the class was not that much more than when I was in college. A little bit better, but not that much more, so it was really clear that the pipeline was leaking more girls than boys, all the way from elementary school through college, and I came to appreciate that the reasons are primarily societal.</p> <p>The girls in elementary school are as good at math and science as the boys, the test scores show that. There have been surveys. A 1996 survey of fourth graders asked a bunch of questions, including, “Do you like science?” Sixty-eight percent of fourth grade boys said they liked science, 66 percent of fourth grade girls say they like science. So in fourth grade, it’s the same number of boys and girls. Then we start losing both boys and girls, but we lose girls disproportionately all the way through, and it starts right around fourth or fifth grade.</p> <p>I decided that it was worth my time to try to have some impact on that, and try to, first, help change the culture and make the culture realize that the girls are out there, that if we want scientists and engineers in the future, we should be cultivating the girls as much as the boys, and that we needed to be able to give girls in middle school, high school and college the same opportunities that we give to boys. So I have put in a lot of time creating programs for girls, particularly in middle school, to just keep them engaged and introduce them to role models, show them that whether they want to be a rocket scientist or a geochemist or a microbiologist, that there are women who are now actively involved in those careers and who love what they do. I think it’s slowly but surely having an impact.</p> <p><strong>In terms of a career, in terms of doing what you want to do, do you think it’s important to take risks along the way?</strong></p> <p>Sally Ride: Yeah, I think it is. I have been a bit of a risk taker all my life, not always in the traditional way of defining risks, but when I was growing up, it was probably risky for a young girl to decide to be a scientist. It was probably, even when I was in college, risky for a female college graduate to go on to graduate school in physics, and certainly going on to be an astronaut was taking a risk. But I think that it is important to be willing to take that step, to kind of make that leap to do what you want to do, and that is my definition of being a risk taker.</p> <p><strong>How do you measure achievement?</strong></p> <p>Sally Ride: I actually measure it by personal satisfaction. I measure it by my own standards and my own goals, and whether I think that I have lived up to what I want to be doing in a particular day or a particular week or a particular year. At any one time, I have a pretty good idea of what I want to be doing in my life today and tomorrow, not necessarily five years from now, but today and tomorrow I have a good idea of what I want to be doing, and it’s my own sense of accomplishment, my own internal measure, that I think gives me the measure of achievement. If I think I’ve accomplished what I set out to accomplish, then that’s achievement.</p> <p><strong>When bright young students come to you seeking advice, what do you say to them?</strong></p> <p>Sally Ride: Why are you talking to me? Actually, the best advice I can give anybody is to try to understand who you are and what you want to do, and don’t be afraid to go down that road and do whatever it takes and work as hard as you have to work to achieve that.</p> <p><strong>Looking ahead into the 21st century, what are your greatest concerns? What do you think our greatest problems are in America or the world?</strong></p> <p>Sally Ride: The world has no shortage of problems, but I think that one that is becoming clearer and clearer to us now is the global environment and how we are having an impact on the global environment, and I think that my perspective from space has given me perhaps a unique perspective on this problem. It’s the only planet we’ve got, and you can see the effect of humanity when you look back at Earth from space. You can see it in a lot of different areas. You can see smog over the cities, you can see pollution in the water. Our satellites can measure differences in the atmosphere, and it’s starting to accumulate to a point that we may not be able to correct the problem if we don’t do something about it pretty soon. That is one of the things that concerns me most over the next several decades.</p> <p><strong>How would you like to be remembered? What is the legacy of Sally Ride?</strong></p> <p>Sally Ride: I would like to be remembered as someone who was not afraid to do what she wanted to do, and as someone who took risks along the way in order to achieve her goals.</p> <p><strong>Terrific. Is there anything more you want to say?</strong></p> <p>Sally Ride: Not a thing.</p> <p><strong>You have been great. We appreciate it.</strong></p> </div>  </aside>  <div class="read-more__toggle collapsed" data-toggle="collapse" data-target="#full-interview"><a href="#" class="sans-4 btn">Read full interview</a></div> </article> </section> </div> <div class="tab-pane fade" id="gallery" role="tabpanel"> <section class="isotope-wrapper">  <header class="toolbar toolbar--gallery bg-white clearfix"> <div class="col-md-6"> <div class="serif-4">Sally K. Ride, Ph.D. Gallery</div> </div> <div class="col-md-6 text-md-right isotope-toolbar"> <ul class="list-unstyled list-inline m-b-0 text-brand-primary sans-4"> <li class="list-inline-item" data-filter=".photo"><i class="icon-icon_camera"></i>32 photos</li> </ul> </div> </header> <div class="isotope-gallery isotope-box single-achiever__gallery clearfix"> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.65131578947368" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-029-ride-756157main_s07-31-1603-full_full.jpg" data-image-caption="On June 18, 1983, Sally Ride became the first American woman to fly in space when the Space Shuttle Challenger launched on Mission STS-7. As one of the three mission specialists on Challenger, she played a vital role in helping the crew deploy communications satellites, conduct experiments and make use of the first Shuttle Pallet Satellite. In this image, Dr. Ride sits in the aft flight deck mission specialist's seat during deorbit preparations. (Image Credit: NASA)" data-image-copyright="rid0-029-ride-756157main_s07-31-1603-full_full" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-029-ride-756157main_s07-31-1603-full_full-380x247.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-029-ride-756157main_s07-31-1603-full_full-760x495.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.4814814814815" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-028-ride-713714main_zuber-2-full_full.jpg" data-image-caption="This image shows Sally Ride, America's first woman in space, who was also part of NASA's Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission. Ride led the Moon Knowledge Acquired by Middle School Students (MoonKAM) project, which allowed students nationwide to target lunar images to be taken by Ebb and Flow, the two GRAIL spacecraft. (Image Credit: Sally Ride) Science" data-image-copyright="rid0-028-ride-713714main_zuber-2-full_full" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-028-ride-713714main_zuber-2-full_full-257x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-028-ride-713714main_zuber-2-full_full-513x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.68157894736842" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-027-ride-669001main_03pd2019_full.jpg" data-image-caption="In June 2003, at the KSC Visitor Complex, former astronaut Robert L. Crippen (right) presents former astronaut Sally K. Ride (standing center) at her induction ceremony into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame. Also standing is former astronaut James A. Lovell. Seated on the dais are, from left, former astronauts John H. Glenn, Gordon Cooper, Buzz Aldrin, and Walter Cunningham, all previously inducted into the Hall of Fame. Being inducted with Ride are space shuttle astronauts Daniel Brandenstein, Robert Gibson and Story Musgrave. Conceived by six of the Mercury Program astronauts, the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame opened in 1990 to provide a place where space travelers could be remembered for their participation and accomplishments in the U.S. space program. The four new inductees join 48 previously honored astronauts from the ranks of the Gemini, Apollo, Skylab, Apollo-Soyuz, and Space Shuttle programs. (Image Credit: NASA)" data-image-copyright="rid0-027-ride-669001main_03pd2019_full" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-027-ride-669001main_03pd2019_full-380x259.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-027-ride-669001main_03pd2019_full-760x518.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66184210526316" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-026-ride-668760main_ride_15_full.jpg" data-image-caption="In this image taken on October 13, 1984 aboard Space Shuttle Challenger on Mission STS-41G, astronauts Kathryn D. Sullivan, left, and Sally K. Ride show off what appears to be a "bag of worms," a product of their creativity. The "bag" is a sleep restraint, and the majority of the "worms" are springs and clips used with the sleep restraint in its normal application. Clamps, a bungee cord and Velcro strips are other recognizable items in the creation. (Image Credit: NASA)" data-image-copyright="rid0-026-ride-668760main_ride_15_full" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-026-ride-668760main_ride_15_full-380x251.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-026-ride-668760main_ride_15_full-760x503.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.73552631578947" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-002-Ride-Sally-Getty-51502044_10.jpg" data-image-caption="The crew of the Space Shuttle Challenger's 1983 Mission STS-7. Sally Ride (L), crew commander Robert Crippen (center), pilot Frederick Hauck (R) and mission specialists John Fabian and Norman Thagard. (AFP/Getty Images)" data-image-copyright="NASA astronaut Robert Crippen (C, first row), the" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-002-Ride-Sally-Getty-51502044_10-380x279.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-002-Ride-Sally-Getty-51502044_10-760x559.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.5261044176707" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-025-ride-668709main_ride4_full_full.jpg" data-image-caption="A suit technician helps Sally Ride strap herself into a seat in the shuttle mission simulator in Houston on May 23, 1983, less than a month before her launch aboard Space Shuttle Challenger. (Image Credit: NASA)" data-image-copyright="rid0-025-ride-668709main_ride4_full_full" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-025-ride-668709main_ride4_full_full-249x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-025-ride-668709main_ride4_full_full-498x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.65789473684211" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-024-ride-668675main_ride7_full_full.jpg" data-image-caption="On June 15, 1983, three days before launch aboard Space Shuttle Challenger, Sally Ride takes a last look at Houston before taking off in a T-38 jet, bound for NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. After a few days of preparation at KSC, Dr. Ride and four other astronauts became the first NASA five-member crew to fly in space as they lifted off in the Challenger from Launch Pad 39A. (Image Credit: NASA)" data-image-copyright="rid0-024-ride-668675main_ride7_full_full" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-024-ride-668675main_ride7_full_full-380x250.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-024-ride-668675main_ride7_full_full-760x500.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.76447368421053" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-023-ride-668662main_ride6_full_full.jpg" data-image-caption="Astronaut Sally K. Ride (left) participates in a mission sequence test in preparation for the STS-7 mission, in the Kennedy Space Center's vertical processing facility. She is joined by Anna L. Fisher, a physician and astronaut from the 1978 program that was the first to train women astronauts. (Image Credit: NASA)" data-image-copyright="rid0-023-ride-668662main_ride6_full_full" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-023-ride-668662main_ride6_full_full-380x290.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-023-ride-668662main_ride6_full_full-760x581.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.65789473684211" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-022-ride-668637main_ride5_full_full.jpg" data-image-caption="Astronaut Sally K. Ride, STS-7 mission specialist, exits the Shuttle Mission Simulator (SMS) following a training session in the Johnson Space Center’s Mission Simulation and Training Facility. "The fact that I was going to be the first American woman to go into space carried huge expectations along with it," said Ride later. (Image Credit: NASA)" data-image-copyright="rid0-022-ride-668637main_ride5_full_full" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-022-ride-668637main_ride5_full_full-380x250.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-022-ride-668637main_ride5_full_full-760x500.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.65526315789474" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-021-ride-668613main_ride3_full_full.jpg" data-image-caption="Sally Ride and three of her STS-7 crewmates take a break from simulations in the Johnson Space Center's Mission Simulation and Training Facility to pose for a NASA photographer. Standing on the steps leading into the motion-based Shuttle Mission Simulator (SMS) are (left to right) astronauts Robert L. Crippen, John M. Fabian, Frederick H. Hauck and Sally K. Ride. (Image Credit: NASA)" data-image-copyright="rid0-021-ride-668613main_ride3_full_full" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-021-ride-668613main_ride3_full_full-380x249.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-021-ride-668613main_ride3_full_full-760x498.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="2.1288515406162" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-020-ride-668588main_ride_8_full.jpg" data-image-caption="Sally Ride and her crewmates rocket into space aboard Space Shuttle Challenger at 7:33 a.m. EDT on June 18, 1983. Ride later described the launch as "exhilarating, terrifying and overwhelming all at the same time." (Image Credit: NASA)" data-image-copyright="rid0-020-ride-668588main_ride_8_full" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-020-ride-668588main_ride_8_full-178x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-020-ride-668588main_ride_8_full-357x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.63947368421053" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-019-ride-668579main_ride1_full_full.jpg" data-image-caption="Some of NASA's first female astronaut candidates take a break from training in Florida in 1978. From left: Sally Ride, Judith Resnik, Anna Fisher, Kathryn Sullivan, Rhea Seddon. (Image Credit: NASA)" data-image-copyright="rid0-019-ride-668579main_ride1_full_full" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-019-ride-668579main_ride1_full_full-380x243.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-019-ride-668579main_ride1_full_full-760x486.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-018-ride-462928main_GPN-2000-001083_full.jpg" data-image-caption="On June 18, 1983, Sally Ride became the first American woman in space as a Mission Specialist on the Challenger Space Shuttle. Ride is shown here operating control panels from the pilot's chair on the flight deck. (Image Credit: NASA)" data-image-copyright="rid0-018-ride-462928main_GPN-2000-001083_full" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-018-ride-462928main_GPN-2000-001083_full-380x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-018-ride-462928main_GPN-2000-001083_full-760x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.79736842105263" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-017-ride-436043main_GPN-2004-00025_full.jpg" data-image-caption="NASA selected six women as their first female astronaut candidates in January 1978, for a training program that they completed in August 1979. From left to right are Shannon W. Lucid, Margaret Rhea Seddon, Kathryn D. Sullivan, Judith A. Resnik, Anna L. Fisher, and Sally K. Ride. (Image Credit: NASA)" data-image-copyright="rid0-017-ride-436043main_GPN-2004-00025_full" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-017-ride-436043main_GPN-2004-00025_full-380x303.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-017-ride-436043main_GPN-2004-00025_full-760x606.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.65657894736842" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-016-ride-41g-90082.jpg" data-image-caption="Sally Ride, right, and astronaut Kathryn Sullivan synchronize their watches in the "white room" before entering the Shuttle Challenger to launch on Mission STS-41G on October 5, 1984. It was the first flight to carry two women into space. "At least," Ride said of Sullivan," she had someone to share the attention with." (Image Credit: NASA)" data-image-copyright="rid0-016-ride-41g-90082" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-016-ride-41g-90082-380x249.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-016-ride-41g-90082-760x499.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-014-ride-s83-35782.jpg" data-image-caption="An orbital maneuvering system (OMS) engine firing caused this bright glow at the aft end of the Shuttle Challenger during the STS-7 Mission. Also visible in the open payload bay are parts of the Shuttle pallet satellite, the experiment package for NASA's Office of Space and Terrestrial Applications, the protective cradles for the Indonesian Palapa-B and Telesat Canada Anik C2 satellites, some getaway special canisters and the Canadian-built remote manipulator system. Only a small portion of the earth's horizon can be seen above the orbiter's vertical stabilizer. June 25, 1983. (Image Credit: NASA)" data-image-copyright="rid0-014-ride-s83-35782" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-014-ride-s83-35782-380x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-014-ride-s83-35782-760x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.99210526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-013-ride-s83-35620-3k.jpg" data-image-caption="On June 18, 1983, Sally Ride became the first American woman in space when the Space Shuttle Challenger launched from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The crew consisted of astronauts Robert Crippen, commander, the first two-time space shuttle astronaut; Frederick H. Hauck, pilot; and three mission specialists -- Sally Ride, John M. Fabian and Norman E. Thagard. (Image Credit: NASA)" data-image-copyright="rid0-013-ride-s83-35620-3k" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-013-ride-s83-35620-3k-380x377.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-013-ride-s83-35620-3k-760x754.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.65921052631579" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-012-s07-14-629.jpg" data-image-caption="June 18, 1983: Sally Ride becomes the first American woman in space. Space Shuttle Challenger and the STS-7 crew launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. With the launch, Mission Specialist Sally Ride became the first American woman to fly in space. The STS-7 crew, the first five-member crew, deployed two communications satellites and conducted experiments from the Shuttle Pallet Satellite. Ride, shown here floating in the Challenger flight deck, later described the launch as "exhilarating, terrifying and overwhelming all at the same time." The NASA History Program is responsible for generating, disseminating, and preserving NASA’s remarkable history and providing a comprehensive understanding of the institutional, cultural, social, political, economic, technological, and scientific aspects of NASA’s activities in aeronautics and space. (Image credit: NASA)" data-image-copyright="rid0-012-s07-14-629" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-012-s07-14-629-380x251.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-012-s07-14-629-760x501.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.2709030100334" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-011-Ride-s.jpg" data-image-caption="Sally Ride's official astronaut portrait. She joined the astronaut corps in 1978. (Image Credit: NASA)" data-image-copyright="rid0-011-Ride-s" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-011-Ride-s-299x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-011-Ride-s-598x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.5049504950495" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-010-Ride_on_the_Middeck_-_GPN-2000-001081.jpg" data-image-caption="On Challenger's middeck, Mission Specialist Sally Ride, wearing light blue flight coveralls and communications headset, floats alongside the middeck airlock hatch." data-image-copyright="rid0-010-Ride_on_the_Middeck_-_GPN-2000-001081" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-010-Ride_on_the_Middeck_-_GPN-2000-001081-252x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-010-Ride_on_the_Middeck_-_GPN-2000-001081-505x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.75" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-009-Ride-Sally-corbis-U830835.jpg" data-image-caption="June 3, 1983, Cape Canaveral, Florida: Astronaut Sally Ride walks with Robert Crippen and other astronauts in a field prior to the launch of the Space Shuttle Challenger's second mission in Earth-orbit. (© Bettmann/CORBIS)" data-image-copyright="U830835" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-009-Ride-Sally-corbis-U830835-380x285.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-009-Ride-Sally-corbis-U830835-760x570.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.78684210526316" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-008-Ride-Sally-Corbis-U830955-1.jpg" data-image-caption="Sally Ride communicates with ground control from the flight deck of the Earth-orbiting Space Shuttle Challenger. (© Bettmann/CORBIS)" data-image-copyright="Sally Ride Communicating with Ground Control" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-008-Ride-Sally-Corbis-U830955-1-380x299.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-008-Ride-Sally-Corbis-U830955-1-760x598.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.5109343936382" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-007-Ride-Sally-Corbis-BE086000.jpg" data-image-caption="Mission specialist Sally Ride, the first American woman sent into space, totes her own luggage following her arrival at the Kennedy Space Center. (© Bettmann/CORBIS)" data-image-copyright="First Female American Astronaut Sally Ride" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-007-Ride-Sally-Corbis-BE086000-251x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-007-Ride-Sally-Corbis-BE086000-503x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.3893967093236" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-006-Ride-Sally-Corbis-U830876T.jpg" data-image-caption="June 18, 1983: The Challenger is launched into space from Cape Canaveral, Florida. On board is Dr. Sally Ride, America's first woman in space. (© Bettmann/CORBIS)" data-image-copyright="Space Shuttle Lifting Off" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-006-Ride-Sally-Corbis-U830876T-273x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-006-Ride-Sally-Corbis-U830876T-547x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66447368421053" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-005-Ride-Sally-Corbis-AX932185.jpg" data-image-caption="Sally Ride and her fellow astronaut, Challenger pilot Frederick Hauck, laugh during a press conference at Edwards Air Force Base, 1983. (© Douglas Kirkland/CORBIS)" data-image-copyright="Astronauts Sally Ride and Frederick Hauck" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-005-Ride-Sally-Corbis-AX932185-380x252.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-005-Ride-Sally-Corbis-AX932185-760x505.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-004-Ride-Sally-Corbis-AX932184.jpg" data-image-caption="Sally Ride at a press conference before her historic 1983 space mission. (© Douglas Kirkland/CORBIS)" data-image-copyright="Astronaut Sally Ride" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-004-Ride-Sally-Corbis-AX932184-380x254.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-004-Ride-Sally-Corbis-AX932184-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.5109343936382" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-003-Ride-Sally-Corbis-BE086001.jpg" data-image-caption="Sally Ride arrives at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida in 1983. (© Bettmann/CORBIS)" data-image-copyright="First Female Astronaut Sally Ride" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-003-Ride-Sally-Corbis-BE086001-251x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rid0-003-Ride-Sally-Corbis-BE086001-503x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.60131578947368" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/ride_2-06Academy_947.jpg" data-image-caption="Awards Council member Dr. Sally K. Ride, the first American woman in space, talks to the Academy assemblage. (© Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="ride_2-06Academy_947" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/ride_2-06Academy_947-380x228.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/ride_2-06Academy_947-760x457.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.5353535353535" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/ride-GettyImages-76418529.jpg" data-image-caption="Sally Ride in San Diego, California. (Photo by Brett Patterson/Contour by Getty Images)" data-image-copyright="Sally Ride" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/ride-GettyImages-76418529-248x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/ride-GettyImages-76418529-495x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66447368421053" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/wp-albright-chicago_1211_JFR.jpg" data-image-caption="Dr. Tenley Albright presents the Golden Plate Award to Dr. Sally Ride at the 2004 International Achievement Summit in Chicago. (© Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="wp-albright-chicago_1211_JFR" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/wp-albright-chicago_1211_JFR-380x252.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/03/wp-albright-chicago_1211_JFR-760x505.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.4785992217899" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wp-Ride-Sally-Photo-with-her-Sister.jpg" data-image-caption="1978: Sally Ride with her younger sister, Rev. Bear Ride. Bear became a minister several months after Sally was accepted by NASA." data-image-copyright="wp-Ride Sally Photo with her Sister" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wp-Ride-Sally-Photo-with-her-Sister-257x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wp-Ride-Sally-Photo-with-her-Sister-514x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.4205607476636" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wp-Ride-Sally-Junior-High-Photo.jpg" data-image-caption="Sally Ride attended Portola Junior High before attending the Los Angeles prep school Westlake High School for Girls." data-image-copyright="wp-Ride Sally Junior High Photo" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wp-Ride-Sally-Junior-High-Photo-267x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wp-Ride-Sally-Junior-High-Photo-535x760.jpg"></div>  </figure>    </div> </section> </div> </div> <div class="container"> <footer class="editorial-article__footer col-md-8 col-md-offset-4"> <div class="editorial-article__next-link sans-3"> <a href="#"><strong>What's next:</strong> <span class="editorial-article__next-link-title">profile</span></a> </div> <ul class="social list-unstyled list-inline ssk-group m-b-0"> <li class="list-inline-item"><a href="" class="ssk ssk-facebook" data-gtm-category="social" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Shared Achiever on Facebook"><i class="icon-icon_facebook-circle"></i></a></li> <li class="list-inline-item"><a href="" class="ssk ssk-twitter" data-gtm-category="social" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Shared Achiever on Twitter"><i class="icon-icon_twitter-circle"></i></a></li>  <li 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Berger, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sir-timothy-berners-lee/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sir Tim Berners-Lee</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/yogi-berra/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Yogi Berra</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jeffrey-p-bezos/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jeffrey P. Bezos</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/benazir-bhutto/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Benazir Bhutto</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/simone-biles/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Simone Biles</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/keith-l-black/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Keith L. Black, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/elizabeth-blackburn/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Elizabeth Blackburn, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/david-boies-2/"><span class="achiever-list-name">David Boies</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/norman-e-borlaug/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Norman E. Borlaug, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/benjamin-c-bradlee/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Benjamin C. Bradlee</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sergey-brin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sergey Brin</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carter-j-brown/"><span class="achiever-list-name">J. Carter Brown</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/linda-buck/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Linda Buck, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carol-burnett/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carol Burnett</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/george-h-w-bush/"><span class="achiever-list-name">George H. W. Bush</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/susan-butcher/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Susan Butcher</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/james-cameron/"><span class="achiever-list-name">James Cameron</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/benjamin-s-carson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Benjamin S. Carson, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jimmy-carter/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jimmy Carter</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/johnny-cash/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Johnny Cash</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/william-j-clinton/"><span class="achiever-list-name">William J. Clinton</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/francis-s-collins/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/denton-a-cooley/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Denton A. Cooley, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/francis-ford-coppola/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Francis Ford Coppola</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ray-dalio/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ray Dalio</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/olivia-de-havilland/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dame Olivia de Havilland</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/michael-e-debakey-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Michael E. DeBakey, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/michael-dell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Michael S. Dell</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ron-dennis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ron Dennis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/joan-didion/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Joan Didion</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/david-herbert-donald-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">David Herbert Donald, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/david-doubilet/"><span class="achiever-list-name">David Doubilet</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/rita-dove/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Rita Dove</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sylvia-earle/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sylvia Earle, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/elbaradei/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mohamed ElBaradei</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/gertrude-elion/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Gertrude B. Elion, M.Sc.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/larry-j-ellison/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Larry J. Ellison</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/nora-ephron/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Nora Ephron</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/julius-erving/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Julius Erving</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/tony-fadell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Tony Fadell</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/paul-farmer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Paul Farmer, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/suzanne-farrell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Suzanne Farrell</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/anthony-s-fauci-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Anthony S. Fauci, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sally-field/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sally Field</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/lord-norman-foster/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lord Norman Foster</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/aretha-franklin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Aretha Franklin</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/milton-friedman-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Milton Friedman, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carlos-fuentes/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carlos Fuentes</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/athol-fugard/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Athol Fugard</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ernest-j-gaines/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ernest J. Gaines</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/william-h-gates-iii/"><span class="achiever-list-name">William H. Gates III</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/leymah-gbowee/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Leymah Gbowee</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/frank-gehry/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frank O. Gehry</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/murray-gell-mann-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Murray Gell-Mann, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carlos-ghosn/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carlos Ghosn</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/vince-gill/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Vince Gill</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ruth-bader-ginsburg/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ruth Bader Ginsburg</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/louise-gluck/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Louise Glück</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/whoopi-goldberg/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Whoopi Goldberg</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jane-goodall/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dame Jane Goodall</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/doris-kearns-goodwin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Doris Kearns Goodwin, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/mikhail-s-gorbachev/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mikhail S. Gorbachev</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/nadine-gordimer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Nadine Gordimer</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/stephen-jay-gould/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Stephen Jay Gould, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carol-greider-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carol Greider, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/john-grisham/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John Grisham</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sir-john-gurdon/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sir John Gurdon</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/dorothy-hamill/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dorothy Hamill</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/demis-hassabis-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Demis Hassabis, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/lauryn-hill/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lauryn Hill</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sir-edmund-hillary/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sir Edmund Hillary</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/reid-hoffman/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Reid Hoffman</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/khaled-hosseini/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Khaled Hosseini, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ron-howard/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ron Howard</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/john-hume/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John Hume</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/louis-ignarro-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Louis Ignarro, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/daniel-inouye/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Daniel K. Inouye</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jeremy-irons/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jeremy Irons</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/john-irving/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John Irving</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/kazuo-ishiguro/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Kazuo Ishiguro</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sir-peter-jackson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sir Peter Jackson</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/donald-c-johanson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Donald C. Johanson, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/frank-m-johnson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frank M. Johnson, Jr.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/philip-johnson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Philip C. Johnson</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/chuck-jones/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Chuck Jones</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/james-earl-jones/"><span class="achiever-list-name">James Earl Jones</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/quincy-jones/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Quincy Jones</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/beverly-joubert/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Beverly Joubert</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/dereck-joubert/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dereck Joubert</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/paul-kagame/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Paul Kagame</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/thomas-keller-2/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Thomas Keller</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/anthony-m-kennedy/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Anthony M. Kennedy</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/b-b-king/"><span class="achiever-list-name">B.B. King</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carole-king/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carole King</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/coretta-scott-king/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Coretta Scott King</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/henry-kissinger-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Henry A. Kissinger, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/willem-j-kolff/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Willem J. Kolff, M.D., Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/wendy-kopp/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Wendy Kopp</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/henry-r-kravis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Henry R. Kravis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/nicholas-d-kristof/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Nicholas D. Kristof</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/mike-krzyzewski/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mike Krzyzewski</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ray-kurzwell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ray Kurzweil</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/eric-lander-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Eric S. Lander, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/robert-s-langer-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Robert S. Langer, Sc.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/richard-leakey/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Richard E. Leakey</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/leon-lederman-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Leon Lederman, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/robert-lefkowitz-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Robert J. Lefkowitz, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/congressman-john-r-lewis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Congressman John R. Lewis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/maya-lin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Maya Lin</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/george-lucas/"><span class="achiever-list-name">George Lucas</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/norman-mailer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Norman Mailer</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/peyton-manning/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Peyton Manning</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/wynton-marsalis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Wynton Marsalis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/john-c-mather-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John C. Mather, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/johnny-mathis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Johnny Mathis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ernst-mayr-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ernst Mayr, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/willie-mays/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Willie Mays</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/frank-mccourt/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frank McCourt</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/david-mccullough/"><span class="achiever-list-name">David McCullough</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/audra-mcdonald/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Audra McDonald</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/admiral-william-h-mcraven/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Admiral William H. McRaven, USN</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/w-s-merwin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">W. S. Merwin</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/james-a-michener/"><span class="achiever-list-name">James A. Michener</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/marvin-minsky-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Marvin Minsky, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/mario-j-molina-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mario J. Molina, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/n-scott-momaday-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">N. Scott Momaday, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/story-musgrave/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Story Musgrave, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ralph-nader/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ralph Nader</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/peggy-noonan/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Peggy Noonan</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jessye-norman/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jessye Norman</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/tommy-norris/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lt. Thomas R. Norris, USN</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/joyce-carol-oates/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Joyce Carol Oates</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/pierre-omidyar/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Pierre Omidyar</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jimmy-page/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jimmy Page</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/larry-page/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Larry Page</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/arnold-palmer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Arnold Palmer</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/leon-panetta/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Leon Panetta</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/rosa-parks/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Rosa Parks</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/suzan-lori-parks/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Suzan-Lori Parks</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/linus-pauling/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Linus C. Pauling, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/shimon-peres/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Shimon Peres</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/itzhak-perlman/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Itzhak Perlman</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/general-david-petraeus/"><span class="achiever-list-name">General David H. Petraeus, USA</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sidney-poitier/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sidney Poitier</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/general-colin-l-powell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">General Colin L. Powell, USA</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/harold-prince/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Harold Prince</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/venki-ramakrishnan-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Venki Ramakrishnan, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/lord-martin-rees/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lord Martin Rees</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/lloyd-richards/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lloyd Richards</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sally-ride-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sally K. Ride, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sonny-rollins/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sonny Rollins</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/anthony-romero/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Anthony Romero</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/james-rosenquist/"><span class="achiever-list-name">James Rosenquist</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/pete-rozelle/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Pete Rozelle</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/bill-russell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Bill Russell</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/albie-sachs/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Albie Sachs</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/oliver-sacks-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Oliver Sacks, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jonas-salk-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jonas Salk, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/frederick-sanger-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frederick Sanger, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/george-b-schaller-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">George B. Schaller, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/barry-scheck/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Barry Scheck</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/richard-evans-schultes-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Richard Evans Schultes, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/general-h-norman-schwarzkopf/"><span class="achiever-list-name">General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, USA</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/stephen-schwarzman/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Stephen A. Schwarzman</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/glenn-t-seaborg-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Glenn T. Seaborg, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/neil-sheehan/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Neil Sheehan</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/admiral-alan-shepard-jr/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Admiral Alan B. Shepard, Jr., USN</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ellen-johnson-sirleaf/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ellen Johnson Sirleaf</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carlos-slim/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carlos Slim Helú</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/frederick-w-smith/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frederick W. Smith</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/stephen-sondheim/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Stephen Sondheim</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sonia-sotomayor/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sonia Sotomayor</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/wole-soyinka/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Wole Soyinka</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/esperanza-spalding/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Esperanza Spalding</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/martha-stewart/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Martha Stewart</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/admiral-james-b-stockdale/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Admiral James B. Stockdale, USN</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/hilary-swank/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Hilary Swank</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/amy-tan/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Amy Tan</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/dame-kiri-te-kanawa/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dame Kiri Te Kanawa</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/edward-teller-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Edward Teller, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/twyla-tharp/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Twyla Tharp</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/wayne-thiebaud/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Wayne Thiebaud</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/lt-michael-e-thornton-usn/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lt. Michael E. Thornton, USN</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/charles-h-townes-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Charles H. Townes, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/david-trimble/"><span class="achiever-list-name">David Trimble</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ted-turner/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Robert Edward (Ted) Turner</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/desmond-tutu/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Archbishop Desmond Tutu</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/john-updike/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John Updike</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/gore-vidal/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Gore Vidal</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/antonio-villaraigosa/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Antonio Villaraigosa</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/lech-walesa/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lech Walesa</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/herschel-walker/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Herschel Walker</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/james-d-watson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">James D. Watson, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/andrew-weil-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Andrew Weil, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/leslie-h-wexner/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Leslie H. Wexner</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/elie-wiesel/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Elie Wiesel</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/edward-o-wilson-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Edward O. Wilson, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/oprah-winfrey/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Oprah Winfrey</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/tom-wolfe/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Tom Wolfe</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/john-wooden/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John Wooden</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/bob-woodward/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Bob Woodward</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/shinya-yamanaka-m-d-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Shinya Yamanaka, M.D., Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/general-chuck-yeager/"><span class="achiever-list-name">General Chuck Yeager, USAF</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190111083519/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/andrew-young/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Andrew J. 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