Excerpt
SUMMARY: Known for being the first American woman in space, Sally Ride dedicated her life to inspiring young people to engage in science, using space travel as a means to an educational end, rather than her own personal thrill ride. Judy Woodruff talks with science correspondent Miles O'Brien about Ride and her legacy.
SALLY RIDE, NASA astronaut: The moment of ignition, there's absolutely nothing like it. There's so much power, so much thunder. You know that something you have no control over at all is happening for the next eight-and-a-half minutes.
JUDY WOODRUFF (Newshour): It was 1983, and Sally Ride made history as the first American woman in space. The first Russian woman had made it 20 years before. Ride reflected on the experience in a NASA interview 25 years after her mission.
SALLY RIDE: And I remember unstrapping from my seat, floating over to the window, and that's when I got my first view of Earth. I could see coral reefs off the coast of Australia, huge storms swirling in the ocean. I could see an enormous dust storm building over Northern Africa and then starting its way across the North Atlantic toward us. Unbelievable sights.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Ride was just 32 during that first flight, and she said at the time she thought her age was more important than her gender.
SALLY RIDE: I guess that I was maybe more excited about getting a chance to fly early than I was about getting to be the first woman. I'm more excited about that opportunity than I am about being the -- as you say, a footnote in history.
"From the Vault: Roger Mudd's 1987 Report on Sally Ride" by Jenny Marder, PBS Newshour 7/24/2012
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