Ride's Journey Essay

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Ride’s journey began when she was just a college student attending Stanford University, on her way to earning a B.A. in English, a B.S. in physics(6), degrees in both physics and astrophysics (as well as English)(7), and a P.h.D. in physics.(5a) It was during her final year of graduate work, after completing eight years of college, that she saw the advertisement NASA had sent out recruiting astronauts in her college newspaper. Ride immediately signed up, not knowing at the time why exactly she had but knowing she could do it. NASA sorted through the eight thousand applications, including over one thousand female applicants, and selected 208 finalists, Ride among them. The chosen applicants participated in extensive interviews along with physical and mental stress tests: from this process thirty-five people were selected as astronaut-candidates in 1978, six of whom were …show more content…

Upon arrival, it was nothing but studying and training for these newcomers until April in 1982 when one of these lucky recruits was hand picked by Navy Captain Robert L. Crippen to be a member of the Challenger STS-7 .(6a) Despite her sex, Sally Ride was chosen “because she’s the very best for the job. There’s no man I’d rather have in her place.”(3a) Ride would be the first of her fellow “New Guys” to be launched into orbit when she was a member of Challenger’s STS-7 crew. After another long year of training Sally Ride was ready to become the first American woman in

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