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40 years since Sally Ride became the first American woman in space

Ride was one of only six women accepted to NASA’s astronaut program in 1978. Just 5 years later, she blasted through to become America’s first woman in space.

NORFOLK, Va. — In 2024, Christina Koch will become the first woman to fly around the moon.

NASA selected the astronaut to be part of the Artemis II mission, the first crewed mission to the moon in 50 years.

But the trail was blazed for Koch decades before this trip. In fact, this year marks 40 years since we sent the first American woman to space.

Before she launched into the record books, Sally Ride was just a California girl. She was an aspiring tennis star who studied physics at Stanford University. It was there she answered a simple "help wanted" ad that changed her life and U.S. history.

Ride was one of only six women accepted to NASA’s astronaut program in 1978, and just five years later, she blasted through the glass ceiling to become America’s first woman in space. At just 32, she was also the country’s youngest.

“It’s a real experience, and an experience of a lifetime to be able to fly in space and fly aboard the space shuttle,” Ride said during an ABC interview in 1983.

Even after she came back down to earth, Ride continued to inspire others.

She created the Sally Ride Science Foundation, hoping to spark the next generation of female scientists to look to the heavens.

Just last November, the Antares rocket that bears her name, S.S. Sally Ride, launched from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility headed for the International Space Station, 10 years after her death from pancreatic cancer.

No earlier than late 2024, Koch will be joined by Artemis II mission commander Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, an African American naval aviator, and Canada's Jeremy Hansen, a former fighter pilot and the crew's lone space rookie. 

Wiseman, Glover, and Koch have all lived on the International Space Station. All four are in their 40s.

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