Tuesday, July 24, 2012
7/24/12 news
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
JSC TODAY HEADLINES
1. 2012 JSC Honor Awards Today -- Teague Auditorium
2. Would You 'Ask' for a Car Crash?
3. Gilruth Center Open House and Social Hour -- Free Food, Drinks and Giveaways
4. Learn About the State of the Center at Aug. 28 NMA Luncheon
5. Space Center Houston Hosts 'Curiosity: 7 Minutes of Terror'
6. Starport Presents: Footloose - Learn the Dance
7. Starport Boot Camp -- It's Back!
8. Need to Lose Weight? Join Just Lose It!
9. EWB-JSC Fruit Dryer System Design Review
10. Introduction to Entrepreneurship
11. Project Management Institute Clear Lake/Galveston Chapter Presentation
12. Crane Operations & Rigging Safety Refresher: Aug. 20, 8 a.m. - Building 226, Room 174
13. Hypergol Systems: Design, Buildup & Operation: Aug. 23-24 - Building 226N, Room 174
14. Registration Deadline - APPEL - Space Launch and Transportation Systems
________________________________________ QUOTE OF THE DAY
“ Everyone journeys through character as well as through time. The person one becomes depends on the person one has been. ”
-- Dick Francis
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1. 2012 JSC Honor Awards Today -- Teague Auditorium
The 2012 JSC Honor Awards will be presented in a ceremony at the Teague Auditorium today at 2 p.m. This annual ceremony recognizes outstanding contributions to the space program with JSC Director's Commendation, Director's Innovation, Innovation Team Awards, Power of One, Secretarial Excellence, and Patent Inventor Awards.
A full listing of today's honorees can be found on the JSC Announcements page.
Jacinda Green x31057
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2. Would You 'Ask' for a Car Crash?
Not knowingly, but then, neither did the 3,092 people who have been killed or the 416,000 who have been injured -- all as the result of texting, cell phones or some form of distraction while driving.
A jarring fact: Five seconds is the average time your eyes are off the road while texting. When traveling at 55 mph, that's enough time to cover the length of a football field.
This week, the Stay Sharp, Stay Safe campaign is emphasizing the importance of recognizing distraction as a major source of death and injury in vehicles and, in many cases, of pedestrians.
For more details on how you can stay sharp, stay safe, and protect others, see the link below.
Also, while you're there, be sure to enter the 10-question contest drawing for a prize of a lifetime!
Stacey Menard x45660 http://www6.jsc.nasa.gov/safety/WhatsNew/AAC/
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3. Gilruth Center Open House and Social Hour -- Free Food, Drinks and Giveaways
Stop by the Gilruth Center on Thursday, July 26, from 3 to 5 p.m. for an Open House and Social Hour. Starport turns 50 on July 24. To commemorate this momentous event, we will be remembering the past, promoting our services of the present and looking forward to exciting offerings of the future.
Enjoy free catering and vendor samples along with champagne and other beverages. Visit our gift shop booth, where we will have featured products, and enter your name for prize drawings. There will also be a ribbon cutting for our new yoga and pilates studio, where we will create an entire mind/body experience with an exciting new program that will soon be offered.
Plus, we will be giving away Houston Texans Training Camp tickets for Aug. 4 (while supplies last).
Shelly Harlason x39168 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/
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4. Learn About the State of the Center at Aug. 28 NMA Luncheon
Please join us for August's JSC National Management Association (NMA) Chapter luncheon presentation, "State of the Center," with guest speaker JSC Director Mike Coats.
Date: Aug. 28
Time: 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Location: Gilruth Center Alamo Ballroom
Seats will fill up fast. Please RSVP by close of business Aug. 21 at: http://www.jscnma.com/Events
For RSVP technical assistance and membership information, please contact Lorraine Guerra at lorraine.guerra-1@nasa.gov or 281-483-4262.
Cassandra Miranda x38618
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5. Space Center Houston Hosts 'Curiosity: 7 Minutes of Terror'
Don't miss "Curiosity: 7 Minutes of Terror," hosted by Space Center Houston. It's a fun-filled family camp-in to celebrate the landing of the Curiosity rover on Mars. There will be edible Mars creations, exciting presentations by Mars experts and even a delicious Mars celebration breakfast following countdown.
When: Sunday, Aug. 5, from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m.
Save $5! Only $4.95 if purchased online at http://www.spacecenter.org/marslanding.html by Aug. 4. Tickets purchased at the gate will be $9.95.
Susan H. Anderson x38630 http://www.spacecenter.org/marslanding.html
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6. Starport Presents: Footloose - Learn the Dance
Dance event information:
- Friday, Aug. 10
- 5:30 to 7 p.m.
- Gilruth Center Gymnasium
Are you ready to cut loose?! Starport and Heather Paul are ready to teach you the Footloose dance routine in one amazing night. All family, friends and community members are welcome (12 years and older). Sign up for this great class today.
Early Registration: OPEN NOW to Aug. 1
- $10 per person
Regular Registration: Aug. 2 to 10
- $15 per person
Register at the Gilruth Center information desk.
Don't miss out on this fantastic experience. Sign up now!
Steve Schade x30304 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/Fitness/RecreationClasses/RecreationProgram...
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7. Starport Boot Camp -- It's Back!
Starport's incredibly popular Boot Camp filled up in just over one week last session, so don't wait to sign up. Our GREAT instructor is back and we're keeping our phenomenally REDUCED price structure.
Early Registration (ends Aug. 3):
- $90 per person (Just $5 per class)
Regular Registration (Aug. 4 to 12):
- $110 per person
The workout begins on Aug. 13.
Are you ready for 18 hours of intense workouts with an amazing personal trainer to get you to your fitness goal?
Don't wait!
Sign up today and take advantage of this EXTREME discount while it lasts. Register now at the Gilruth Center information desk, or call 281-483-0304 for more information.
Steve Schade x30304 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/Fitness/RecreationClasses/RecreationProgram...
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8. Need to Lose Weight? Join Just Lose It!
Battling weight problems? JUST LOSE IT with the help of the Exploration Wellness 12-week weight management program. JSC's registered dietitian and exercise scientist will help you set a weight-loss goal and empower you to reach it! The professional expertise and group support will keep you on track and help you avoid common pitfalls along your personal weight-loss journey. Weekly meetings will encourage and educate you on various exercise and nutrition topics.
Enrollment Details:
There is a fee for this program of $100 due by close of business July 30. This fee is refunded if you meet these criteria: meet your weight goal and receive 100 percent refund; or 50 percent is refunded for 100 percent attendance.
Please enroll first, then wait for your confirmation email before going to the Gilruth to pay. Classes will be held on Wednesdays from 11 to 11:40 a.m. in Building 8, Conference Room 248.
Greta Ayers x30302 http://www.explorationwellness.com/Web/docs/JLI.pdf
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9. EWB-JSC Fruit Dryer System Design Review
The JSC chapter of Engineers Without Borders (EWB) has designed a fruit-drying system to be built at the L'Esperance Children's Aid Orphanage in Rwanda, to help them break the cycle of donations and become financially sustainable. We would like to share this Preliminary Design Review design with anyone interested in getting involved with our chapter and our upcoming build of a prototype. Come out to Building 7, Room 141, on Wednesday, July 25, from noon to 1 p.m. The chapter will present the fruit-dryer design. This is open to all, and no RSVP is required.
Angela Cason x40903 http://ewb-jsc.org/index.html
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10. Introduction to Entrepreneurship
Learn what it takes to turn your ideas and expertise into technology-driven companies.
Launching a new business takes more than just a great idea; it takes planning to create a roadmap to success. The expert presenters for this workshop will share their experiences with you, covering a broad range of topics of interest to new entrepreneurs: preparing a business plan, selecting the proper business structure and form of ownership, financial assumptions and projections, marketing as a basic building block, capital sources, resources for entrepreneurs and Houston Technology Center overviews.
Tuesday, July 31
7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Gilruth Center (3000 E. NASA Parkway, Houston, 77058)
- $25 early registration fee
- After July 27, $50 registration fee
Register today at: http://houstontech.org/events/1027/
Pat Kidwell x37156 http://houstontech.org/events/1027/
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11. Project Management Institute Clear Lake/Galveston Chapter Presentation
The Project Management Institute Clear Lake/Galveston Chapter presents "Swamp PMs" on July 26 from 6 to 8 p.m. The presenter, Don R. James, PMP, will help us analyze the events in the History Channel series "Swamp People" to determine if these alligator hunters are project managers that use the nine Knowledge Areas, five Process Groups and 42 processes of the PMBOK® Guide.
The meeting will be held at Mario's Flying Pizza Restaurant (618 W. NASA Parkway). Please make your reservation by noon on Tuesday, July 24. Register online at: http://www.pmiclg.org (preferred method). The cost of the meeting is $20 for members and $25 for non-members. Dinner is included.
Email: VP-Programs@PMICLG.ORG
Registration/social - 6 p.m.; Dinner - 6:30 to 7 p.m.; Program - 7 to 8 p.m. One professional development unit hour credit is achieved by attending this presentation.
Cheyenne McKeegan x31016
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12. Crane Operations & Rigging Safety Refresher: Aug. 20, 8 a.m. - Building 226, Room 174
SMA-SAFE-NSTC-0028
This course serves as a refresher in overhead crane safety and awareness for operators, riggers, signalmen, supervisors and safety personnel. It also updates one's understanding of existing federal and NASA standards and regulations related to such cranes. Areas of concentration include: general safety in crane operations, testing, inspections, pre-lift plans and safe rigging. This course is intended to provide the classroom training for re-certification of already qualified crane operators, or for those who have only a limited need for overhead crane safety knowledge.
Registration in SATERN is required.
Shirley Robinson x41284
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13. Hypergol Systems: Design, Buildup & Operation: Aug. 23-24 - Building 226N, Room 174
This course is 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily in the JSC Safety Learning Center. It discusses the use of hypergols (hydrazine fuels and nitrogen tetroxide) in NASA applications. During the course, we will identify the hazards associated with the use of hypergols, including: toxicity, reactivity, fire and explosion. Management of hypergol safety risk is discussed in terms of the primary engineering controls: design, buildup and operation; and secondary controls - personal protective equipment and detectors/monitors. The emphasis is on the buildup of compatible systems and the safe operation of these systems by technicians.
SATERN Registration Required. Contractors: Update SATERN profile with your current supervisor, phone, email and NASA organization code your contract supports before registering.
https://satern.nasa.gov/learning/user/deeplink_redirect.jsp?linkId=SCHEDULED_...
Polly Caison x41279
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14. Registration Deadline - APPEL - Space Launch and Transportation Systems
This three-day course is intended to provide practical, detailed approaches and tools to analyze and design manned and unmanned and reusable and expendable launch vehicles for Earth and other planets. This includes architecture and configuration, payloads and vehicle subsystems.
This course is designed for NASA's technical workforce, including engineers, systems engineers and project personnel involved in creating overall mission architectures, detailed designs and the operation of systems.
This course is open for self-registration in SATERN until Thursday, July 26, and is available to civil servants and contractors on a space-available basis.
Dates: Tuesday to Thursday, Aug. 28 to 30
Location: SpringHill Suites - Seabrook
Zeeaa Quadri x39723 https://satern.nasa.gov/learning/user/deeplink_redirect.jsp?linkId=SCHED...
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________________________________________
JSC Today is compiled periodically as a service to JSC employees on an as-submitted basis. Any JSC organization or employee may submit articles. To see an archive of previous JSC Today announcements, go to http://www6.jsc.nasa.gov/pao/news/jsctoday/archives.
NASA TV: 9 am Central (10 EDT) – Sally Ride: A Ride to Remember
Human Spaceflight News
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
HEADLINES AND LEADS
Progress re-docking aborted
William Harwood - CBS News
An attempt to re-dock an unmanned Russian Progress supply ship with the International Space Station was aborted by the ship's flight computer Monday night when a new rendezvous system failed to operate as expected, flight controllers said. By design, the spacecraft ended up on a passive return trajectory that will permit another docking attempt later this week, after engineers have a chance to diagnose what went wrong. The station's six-member crew was never in any danger, officials said.
Progress 47/ISS Re-dock Aborted by Rendezvous System Test Problem
Mark Carreau - Aviation Week
Russia’s unpiloted Progress 47 supply freighter aborted a scheduled re-docking with the six-person International Space Station late Monday, following a failed self test during the final stages of an overnight flight evaluation of a new KURS automated rendezvous system. The KURS-NA upgrade, with its single antenna, lower power requirements and reduced mass, departed the station’s Russian segment for an overnight flight test on Sunday in the expectation it will find its way aboard future Soyuz crew transport as well as Progress re-supply craft.
New Russian space station docking gear test fails
Alissa de Carbonnel - Reuters
A test of new spacecraft docking gear for Russian flights to the International Space Station failed, the U.S. and Russian space agencies said on Tuesday, casting doubt on the automated system meant to simplify missions to the orbiting outpost. The space agencies said a new docking attempt would likely take place on Sunday, after an unmanned Japanese spacecraft, the HTV-3, reaches the station and is manually berthed by astronauts later this week.
Orion Demonstrates Successful Landing With Parachute Anomaly
Mark Carreau - Aviation Week
A full-scale NASA Orion test article has concluded a second parachute drop test at the U.S. Army’s Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona, descending and touching down safely in spite of an intentional anomaly that led to an early inflation of the main chutes. The July 18 drop test is a prelude to Orion’s Exploration Flight Test-1, a two-orbit unmanned flight test of the four-person capsule planned for 2014. With a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy as the propulsion source, the test will evaluate the performance of the spacecraft’s heat shield and other systems at deep-space mission re-entry velocities.
Sally Ride, First American Woman In Space, Is Dead
Eyder Peralta - National Public Radio
In 1983, Sally Ride became the first American woman in space. She blasted off aboard Challenger, culminating a long journey that started in 1977 when the Ph.D. candidate answered an ad seeking astronauts for NASA missions. In a lecture she gave at Berkeley, Ride said she saw the ad on Page 3 of the student newspaper. "The moment I saw that ad, I knew that's what I wanted to do," she said. Ride died today in La Jolla, Calif., after a 17-month battle with pancreatic cancer, her company said on its website. She was 61.
Sally Ride, first American woman in space, dies
William Harwood – CBS News
Sally K. Ride, the first American woman in space and an advocate for science education who served on the presidential commissions that investigated the Challenger and Columbia shuttle disasters and another that recommended a shift to commercial manned spaceflight, died July 23 after a bout with pancreatic cancer. She was 61. "Sally Ride died peacefully on July 23rd, 2012 after a courageous 17-month battle with pancreatic cancer," according to a statement on the Sally Ride Science website. "Sally lived her life to the fullest, with boundless energy, curiosity, intelligence, passion, joy, and love. Her integrity was absolute; her spirit was immeasurable; her approach to life was fearless."
Sally Ride, first US woman in space, dies at 61
Seth Borenstein & Alicia Chang - Associated Press
Space used to be a man's world. Then came Sally Ride, who blazed a cosmic trail into orbit for U.S. women. With a pitch perfect name out of a pop song refrain, she joined the select club of American space heroes the public knew by heart: Shepard, Glenn, Armstrong and Aldrin. Ride, the first American woman in orbit, died Monday at her home in the San Diego community of La Jolla at age 61 of pancreatic cancer, according to her company, Sally Ride Science. Ride flew into space on the space shuttle Challenger on June 18, 1983, when she was 32. Since then, 42 other American women followed her into space.
Sally Ride dies at 61; was first American woman sent into space
T Rees Shapiro & Brian Vastag - Washington Post
Sally Ride, an astronaut and physicist who in 1983 became the first American woman sent into space and reluctantly served as an idol of feminist strength and a hero of women’s progress, died Monday at her home in La Jolla, Calif. She was 61. She had pancreatic cancer, said Terry McEntee, her assistant. Ms. Ride made history on June 18, 1983, when she orbited the Earth aboard the space shuttle Challenger. At 32 years and 23 days old, she was the youngest American to go into space.
American Woman Who Shattered Space Ceiling
Denise Grady - New York Times
Sally Ride, the first American woman to fly in space, died on Monday at her home in San Diego. She was 61. The cause was pancreatic cancer, her company, Sally Ride Science, announced on its Web site. Dr. Ride, a physicist who was accepted into the space program in 1978 after she answered a newspaper ad for astronauts, flew on the shuttle Challenger on June 18, 1983, and on a second mission in 1984. At 32, she was also the youngest American in space.
Sally Ride remembered for handling historic role with grace
Monte Morin & Scott Gold - Los Angeles Times
As friends and former colleagues remembered astronaut Sally Ride, who died Monday of pancreatic cancer, a common theme was the grace with which she handled the responsibility of being the first American woman to fly in space. “She was a terribly nice person and, not surprisingly, enormously poised,” said Lynn Eden, a senior research scholar at the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University, where Ride held a science fellowship from 1987 to 1989 when it was called the Center for International Security and Arms Control. “She was aware of her historic role, but she carried it lightly.”
First U.S. Woman to Fly in Space
Stephen Miller - Wall Street Journal
Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, died Monday. She was 61 years old and had been suffering from pancreatic cancer. Her death was announced by Sally Ride Science, a science-education company she founded to motivate children to pursue careers in science and technology. Ms. Ride first blasted into space on June 18, 1983, aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger, at age 32. The mission came two decades after the Soviet Union sent a woman into space.
Appreciation: Sally Ride, First American Woman in Space
Jeffrey Kluger - Time
Here's how Sally Ride knew she was special: The day she was assigned to her first space flight, she was summoned to meet with Chris Kraft. Kraft was the soon-to-retire director of the Manned Spaceflight Center in Houston. But that was just a title. Kraft was already as much NASA symbol as NASA official; he was the man who'd been choosing astronauts and managing missions since the days of Mercury. He was the man who made careers and, in the case of a few unfortunate astronauts who crossed him by fouling up in flight, the man who ended them. He scared the daylights out of any American who had any hope of flying in space.
Sally Ride dead at 61
Eric Berger - Houston Chronicle
Sally Ride, the first American woman in space and later a champion of math and science education, died of pancreatic cancer Monday. She was 61. A mission specialist on space shuttle Challenger, which launched June 18, 1983, Ride flew again aboard Challenger in 1984 before embarking on a career as a physicist and educator. President Barack Obama said he and his wife, Michelle, were "deeply saddened" by Ride's passing. "Sally was a national hero and a powerful role model," he said. "She inspired generations of young girls to reach for the stars and later fought tirelessly to help them get there by advocating for a greater focus on science and math in our schools. Sally's life showed us that there are no limits to what we can achieve, and I have no doubt that her legacy will endure for years to come."
Sally Ride's 'star will always shine brightly'
America's first woman in space, who inspired a nation, loses cancer battle at 61
Todd Halvorson - Florida Today
America’s first lady in space was remembered Monday as a reluctant celebrity who cared deeply about the nation’s space program and devoted her post-NASA career to keeping middle-school kids — especially girls — hooked on science, math, technology and engineering. Sally Kristen Ride, 61, died peacefully after a courageous 17-month battle with pancreatic cancer. Her death came 29 years and a month after she broke a gender barrier by launching into space aboard shuttle Challenger.
Sally Ride, first U.S. woman in space, dies at 61
Dan Vergano - USA Today
Streaking through a cloud-flecked Saturday morning sky, the space shuttle carried Sally Ride into history, the first American woman in space on June 18, 1983. Ride was more than just a physicist, educator and astronaut. She carried the hopes and aspirations of a generation on the flight, a symbol of the ascent of American women in our nation's working life. Ride, 61, died Monday in La Jolla, Calif., of pancreatic cancer. In her lifetime, she twice visited space, took a leading role in NASA's response to both space shuttle disasters and devoted herself to education, seeking to inspire more young women to pursue life in science.
Sally Ride, First U.S. Woman In Space, Dies
Aviation Week
Sally Ride, the first U.S. woman to travel into space, died in San Diego today after a 17-month battle with pancreatic cancer, according to her organization, Sally Ride Science. She was 61. Ride, a physicist, lifted off aboard the space shuttle Challenger on June 18, 1983. “Sally’s historic flight into space captured the nation’s imagination and made her a household name,” Sally Ride Science said in a statement.
1st US spacewoman, Sally Ride, pushed frontiers
Marcia Dunn - Associated Press
Sally Ride loved everything about space. What she didn't like was being the first American woman to experience it. It took years - if not decades - for her to get comfortable with her galactic status. What drew her out was her San Diego-based education company, Sally Ride Science, which promotes science and math careers for girls and young women. She was determined to give back and she did, a thousand times over before her death of pancreatic cancer on Monday at age 61. Ride burst onto the public stage when NASA chose her to be the nation's first woman in space.
Sally Ride Remembered: Tributes to 1st American Woman in Space
Space.com
Sally Ride, the first American woman to fly in space, died Monday (July 23) at the age of 61. Ride made history when she launched aboard the space shuttle Challenger on the STS-7 mission in 1983. She became only the third woman to ever travel in space, after Soviet cosmonauts Valentina Tereshkova in 1963 and Svetlana Savitskaya in 1982. Ride traveled into space once more in 1984, as a member of the STS-41G crew on the space shuttle Challenger. Over the course of her career, Ride logged a total of 343 hours in space. Sally Ride's death came after 17 months of battling pancreatic cancer. Here are some tributes to Sally Ride from astronauts, scientists, historians, industry officials and other luminaries…
In memoriam: 'Ride, Sally, Ride'
Alan Boyle - NBCNews.com's Cosmic Log
If Sally Ride could have flown in space without the hubbub over being the first American woman to do so, she'd have done it in a heartbeat. Celebrity wasn't her thing. The final frontier was. That comes through loud and clear in Ride's own reminiscences of her selection as NASA's first female space traveler. She recalled getting a "little chat" from Chris Kraft, the head of NASA's Johnson Space Center, just to make sure "I knew what I was getting into before I agreed to be on the crew. But I was so dazzled just by the opportunity to be on the crew and go into space that I really don't remember very much of what he said," she said.
President, Congress react to Sally Ride’s passing
SpacePolitics.com
On Monday, Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, passed away after a 17-month battle with pancreatic cancer. Her death, which came as a surprise to many, led to an outpouring of reaction, including from the White House and members of Congress. “Michelle and I were deeply saddened to hear about the passing of Sally Ride,” President Obama said in a brief statement issued late Monday. “Sally’s life showed us that there are no limits to what we can achieve and I have no doubt that her legacy will endure for years to come. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Sally’s family and friends.”
Student Science Experiments Riding Japanese Rocket To Space Station
Clara Moskowitz - Space.com
Alien superbugs and space spiders are the subjects of two student-designed science experiments due to launch toward the International Space Station Friday aboard a robotic Japanese spacecraft. The projects were chosen by the public as part of the YouTube Space Lab competition, which allowed students between the ages of 14 to 18 to submit videos describing their scientific visions. Two of the winners - Dorothy Chen and Sara Ma, both 16, of Troy, Mich. – were on hand at the Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan for the liftoff of their experiment Friday. The experiments are aboard the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency's unmanned H-2 Transfer Vehicle-3 (HTV-3), nicknamed Kounotori 3 (Japanese for "White Stork 3"). The vehicle will deliver food, supplies and new scientific equipment to the six astronauts living and working on the orbiting laboratory.
Atlas V changes for human spaceflight
Charles Black - Sen.com
NASA and United Launch Alliance (ULA) have been reviewing changes that will be needed to prepare the company's Atlas V rocket for human spaceflight. Atlas V has a successful history of launching satellites and robotic spacecraft including missions for NASA. Last year it sent the Juno probe on its way to Jupiter and launched the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft which is due to arrive at Mars shortly. But the rocket is being designed to carry humans into space - and must therefore meet with more stringent safety standards than those required for unmanned launches.
New aerospace firm scoping out Space Coast
XCOR may build rocket engines, more here - and spur 152 jobs
Patrick Peterson - Florida Today
A California space exploration company lays out the possibility of locating in Brevard County today. XCOR Aerospace Inc., known until now as Project Planet as the company made its way through economic development channels in Florida, will reveal possible plans for building rocket engines and a suborbital spacecraft on the Space Coast in an appearance before the Brevard County Commission. The commission is scheduled to approve matching funds for a nearly $1 million state grant to lure the company.
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COMPLETE STORIES
Progress re-docking aborted
William Harwood - CBS News
An attempt to re-dock an unmanned Russian Progress supply ship with the International Space Station was aborted by the ship's flight computer Monday night when a new rendezvous system failed to operate as expected, flight controllers said.
By design, the spacecraft ended up on a passive return trajectory that will permit another docking attempt later this week, after engineers have a chance to diagnose what went wrong. The station's six-member crew was never in any danger, officials said.
The Progress M-15M spacecraft was undocked from the station's Pirs module Sunday afternoon and directed to back away to a distance of about 100 miles. The goal of the exercise was to test a new KURS rendezvous antenna that is designed to replace three antennas currently used by approaching Progress and manned Soyuz spacecraft to "lock on" to space station navigation beacons.
But Monday evening, with the Progress M-15M spacecraft at a distance of about nine miles from the station, the approach was aborted by the craft's flight computer around 8:23 p.m. EDT (GMT-4).
"Docking was aborted ... when the new KURS-NA automatic rendezvous system, which was being tested tonight, was set to be activated," said Dan Huot, NASA's mission control commentator. "A failure of an unknown nature occurred and caused the Progress's on-board computers to self abort and put the spacecraft into a passive abort trajectory."
Following that trajectory, the spacecraft passed about 2 miles below the space station at 9:37 p.m.
"Following this approach, it'll pass into a long loop back behind the International Space Station while Russian flight controllers ... continue to evaluate the problem," Huot said.
Russian flight controllers could make a second attempt to dock the spacecraft Tuesday evening, but it appeared more likely re-docking would slip to this weekend, after the arrival of a Japanese cargo ship launched last Friday. Station astronauts plan to use the lab's robot arm to pluck Japan's HTV-3 vehicle out of open space this Friday so it can be berthed to an Earth-facing port on the forward Harmony module.
"As of right now, Russian ground controllers (are) indicating the next attempt for this Progress to dock to the International Space Station is likely to be this upcoming weekend, after that HTV-3 vehicle is berthed," Huot said. "But that final decision has not been made yet."
A similar docking failure occurred in July 2010 when an approaching Progress unexpectedly went into a passive abort mode after telemetry between the spacecraft and the station was lost. Russian engineers later blamed the failure on electrical interference between the automated KURS rendezvous system and a television transmitter that is part of a manual backup system.
That spacecraft was successfully attached to the station two days later.
Progress 47/ISS Re-dock Aborted by Rendezvous System Test Problem
Mark Carreau - Aviation Week
Russia’s unpiloted Progress 47 supply freighter aborted a scheduled re-docking with the six-person International Space Station late Monday, following a failed self test during the final stages of an overnight flight evaluation of a new KURS automated rendezvous system.
The KURS-NA upgrade, with its single antenna, lower power requirements and reduced mass, departed the station’s Russian segment for an overnight flight test on Sunday in the expectation it will find its way aboard future Soyuz crew transport as well as Progress re-supply craft.
The trash-laden Progress was scheduled to re-dock to the station’s Russian segment Pirs docking port on Monday at 9:58 p.m., EDT.
The self-test failure occurred at 8:23 p.m., EDT, with the Progress 47 freighter about 9.4 miles behind the station, said NASA spokesman Dan Huot, who was posted in Mission Control, where U. S. experts were monitoring the Russian managed test activities.
Russian flight control teams, who were unsorting the causes of the failed self test, were not expected to make a second docking attempt before Tuesday, following a review of the failed self test by the International Space Station mission management team, said Huot.
Extended trouble shooting was unlikely to bring the Progress 47 close to the station for a second docking attempt prior to Friday’s scheduled rendezvous of Japan’s HTV-3 supply ship with the station early Friday. Station astronauts Joe Acaba, of NASA, and Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide are prepared to grapple the HTV-3 cargo craft with Canadarm 2 on Friday sometime after 8 a.m., EDT, and berth it to the station’s U. S. segment.
The Japanese freighter was launched last Friday with 4.6 metric tons of food, clothing and research gear.
Meanwhile, the Progress 47 abort trajectory, which was triggered by the failed self test, was to bring the Russian freighter no closer then two miles from the orbiting science laboratory – a safe distance, said Huot.
The freighter departed the station on Sunday at 4:26 p.m., propelling itself away and behind the utpost to a distance of about 100 miles for 27 hours of station keeping and KURS-NA evaluation before it was commanded to return.
Cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Yuri Malenchenko were positioned at a TORU control post in the Zvezda service module prepared to manually direct the re-docking if necessary. The Progress failed to approach close enough.
Also designated M-15M, Progress 47 had been scheduled to depart the station for the final time on July 30. It reached the station in April with nearly three tons of fuel and other supplies.
New Russian space station docking gear test fails
Alissa de Carbonnel - Reuters
A test of new spacecraft docking gear for Russian flights to the International Space Station failed, the U.S. and Russian space agencies said on Tuesday, casting doubt on the automated system meant to simplify missions to the orbiting outpost.
The space agencies said a new docking attempt would likely take place on Sunday, after an unmanned Japanese spacecraft, the HTV-3, reaches the station and is manually berthed by astronauts later this week.
Russia's single-use Progress cargo ship had already delivered fuel and other supplies to six astronauts aboard the International Space Station and was due to burn up on re-entry, laden with trash, on July 30, after the next test.
The craft is now orbiting at a safe distance from the outpost while Russian engineers study why the Kurs-NA rendezvous system automatically aborted during the linkup attempt.
"The test was proceeding normally until about the time that the new Kurs-NA rendezvous system was to be engaged," NASA said in a statement on its website.
"As commands were being issued to activate the Kurs system, a failure was announced, triggering a passive abort."
Kurs-NA is an upgrade of the Kurs docking gear used for years on Russia's manned Soyuz and robotic Progress spacecrafts. The system features updated electronics and is designed to improve safety and use less power, according to NASA.
Since the retirement of the U.S. space shuttles last year, the United States has been dependent on Russia and is paying $60 million per person to fly astronauts to the ISS, a $100 billion research complex orbiting 240 miles above Earth.
Moscow is struggling to restore the prestige of its once-pioneering space program after a string of launch mishaps last year, including the failure of a mission to return samples from the Martian moon Phobos.
The next Russian Progress mission is due to launch on August 1 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
Orion Demonstrates Successful Landing With Parachute Anomaly
Mark Carreau - Aviation Week
A full-scale NASA Orion test article has concluded a second parachute drop test at the U.S. Army’s Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona, descending and touching down safely in spite of an intentional anomaly that led to an early inflation of the main chutes.
The July 18 drop test is a prelude to Orion’s Exploration Flight Test-1, a two-orbit unmanned flight test of the four-person capsule planned for 2014. With a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy as the propulsion source, the test will evaluate the performance of the spacecraft’s heat shield and other systems at deep-space mission re-entry velocities.
Dropped from a U.S. Air Force C-17 transport at 25,000 ft., the Orion parachute test vehicle touched down upright 4 min. later at the southern Arizona test site, following successive deployments of drogue, pilot and the three main chutes starting at 20,000 ft.
The drop featured a premature pyrotechnic cut of one of the so-called reefing lines that regulate the inflation of the parachutes. Despite the rapid inflation, the test vehicle landed with a velocity of 25 ft. per second, well within the threshold, according to a NASA summary.
“Across the country, NASA and industry are moving forward on the most advanced spacecraft ever designed, conducting drop and splashdown tests, preparing ground systems, designing software and computers and paving the way for the future of exploration,” said William Gerstenmaier, the agency’s associate administrator for human exploration and operations, in a post-drop statement.
Orion and NASA’s Space Launch System heavy-lift rocket comprise the cornerstone of U.S. human deep-space exploration plans. As outlined by President Barack Obama, those plans include a mission to a near-Earth asteroid by 2025, followed by the eventual exploration of Mars. Orion also will provide a backup NASA capability to reach the International Space Station with crew and cargo.
A February drop of the Orion parachute test vehicle assessed parachute performance in response to the wake coming off the full-scale capsule.
Sally Ride, First American Woman In Space, Is Dead
Eyder Peralta - National Public Radio
In 1983, Sally Ride became the first American woman in space. She blasted off aboard Challenger, culminating a long journey that started in 1977 when the Ph.D. candidate answered an ad seeking astronauts for NASA missions.
In a lecture she gave at Berkeley, Ride said she saw the ad on Page 3 of the student newspaper.
"The moment I saw that ad, I knew that's what I wanted to do," she said.
Ride died today in La Jolla, Calif., after a 17-month battle with pancreatic cancer, her company said on its website.
She was 61.
According to her official biography, by the time Ride decided to apply to become an astronaut, she had already received degrees in physics and English and was on her way to a Ph.D. in physics from Stanford University.
According to her NASA biography, Ride went back into space in October of 1984. She was assigned to another mission after that, but it was scrapped after the shuttle Challenger disaster in 1986.
Steve Inskeep spoke to Ride after the Columbia disaster in 2003. She said despite the tragedies humans would continue their exploration.
"Studying whether there's life on Mars or studying how the universe began, there's something magical about pushing back the frontiers of knowledge," she said. "That's something that is almost part of being human and I'm certain that will continue."
Ride served on the presidential commission investigating the Challenger accident. After a stint as a professor of physics at the University of California, San Diego, Ride founded Sally Ride Science. As NASA puts it, the company allowed her to "pursue her long-time passion of motivating girls and young women to pursue careers in science, math and technology."
Ride was born in Encino, Calif., on May 26, 1951. Karen O'Connor, who chronicled her early life in Sally Ride and the New Astronauts, described her as a "tomboy," racing her father for the sports section of the newspaper when she was 5 years old.
Becoming an astronaut had a bit to do with luck. The same year she started job hunting, NASA opened up its space program to women.
"Sally Ride broke barriers with grace and professionalism – and literally changed the face of America's space program," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said in a statement. "The nation has lost one of its finest leaders, teachers and explorers. Our thoughts and prayers are with Sally's family and the many she inspired. She will be missed, but her star will always shine brightly."
In an interview with NASA celebrating the 25th anniversary of her flight, Ride described the awesomeness of space.
"When the space shuttle's engines cut off, and you're finally in space, in orbit, weightless ... I remember unstrapping from my seat, floating over to the window, and that's when I got my first view of Earth. Just a spectacular view, and a chance to see our planet as a planet," she said.
"I could see coral reefs off the coast of Australia. A huge storm swirling in the ocean. I could see an enormous dust storm building over northern Africa ... just unbelievable sights."
Ride is survived by Tam O'Shaughnessy, her partner of 27 years, her mother, Joyce; her sister, Bear; her niece, Caitlin; and her nephew, Whitney.
Capt. Bob Crippen, the crew commander on Ride's historic mission said that among great women, Ride emerged as one of the best. She didn't seem like the type to go after breaking barriers, he said, but she did.
"[She] proved that young women could do anything they wanted to do," Crippen said.
In its obituary, NASA quotes Ride remembering that first flight. She said everyone knew as soon as she was selected for the crew that she would be the first American woman in space.
She said there were "huge expectations" with that role, so she was taken to the office of then-NASA Flight Director Chris Kraft.
"He wanted to have a chat with me and make sure I knew what I was getting into before I went on the crew. I was so dazzled to be on the crew and go into space I remembered very little of what he said," Ride said.
Sally Ride, first American woman in space, dies
William Harwood – CBS News
Sally K. Ride, the first American woman in space and an advocate for science education who served on the presidential commissions that investigated the Challenger and Columbia shuttle disasters and another that recommended a shift to commercial manned spaceflight, died July 23 after a bout with pancreatic cancer. She was 61.
"Sally Ride died peacefully on July 23rd, 2012 after a courageous 17-month battle with pancreatic cancer," according to a statement on the Sally Ride Science website. "Sally lived her life to the fullest, with boundless energy, curiosity, intelligence, passion, joy, and love. Her integrity was absolute; her spirit was immeasurable; her approach to life was fearless."
In a statement released by the White House, President Obama said "Michelle and I were deeply saddened to hear about the passing of Sally Ride. As the first American woman to travel into space, Sally was a national hero and a powerful role model. She inspired generations of young girls to reach for the stars and later fought tirelessly to help them get there by advocating for a greater focus on science and math in our schools.
"Sally's life showed us that there are no limits to what we can achieve and I have no doubt that her legacy will endure for years to come. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Sally's family and friends."
Said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, a former shuttle commander: "Sally Ride broke barriers with grace and professionalism -- and literally changed the face of America's space program."
"The nation has lost one of its finest leaders, teachers and explorers," he said in a statement. "Our thoughts and prayers are with Sally's family and the many she inspired. She will be missed, but her star will always shine brightly."
Most recently the president and CEO of Sally Ride Science, the former shuttle astronaut held a doctorate in physics and was one of the initial group of six women selected by NASA in 1978 to train for upcoming shuttle flights. Joining Ride were Shannon Lucid, Rhea Seddon, Kathryn Sullivan, Judy Resnik and Anna Fisher.
Valentina Tereshkova, a Russian cosmonaut, became the first woman to fly in space in 1963. But in the U.S. space program, NASA astronauts were chosen primarily from the ranks of military test pilots and through the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs they were all male.
But with the space shuttle, NASA created a new class of astronaut, the "mission specialist," and opened the door to non pilots with advanced degrees and professional experience in science and high technology.
Ride was a perfect fit, seeming to embody the "right stuff" image of an astronaut with easy grace and a ready smile that endeared her to millions.
After serving as a mission control "capsule communicator," or CAPCOM, for two missions, Ride rocketed into history as the first American woman in space on June 18, 1983, when she blasted off aboard the shuttle Challenger for mission STS-7, a six-day flight to deploy two communications satellites and to launch and retrieve a small science satellite.
Ride became instantly famous, a role model for women and young girls around the world, breaking through the ultimate glass ceiling and into the previously male world of the astronaut corps.
"The fact that I was going to be the first American woman to go into space carried huge expectations along with it," Ride said in a NASA interview marking the 25th anniversary of her first flight. "That was made pretty clear the day that I was told I was selected as a crew. I was taken up to Chris Kraft's office. He wanted to have a chat with me and make sure I knew what I was getting into before I went on the crew. I was so dazzled to be on the crew and go into space I remembered very little of what he said.
"On launch day, there was so much excitement and so much happening around us in crew quarters, even on the way to the launch pad," she said. "I didn't really think about it that much at the time -- but I came to appreciate what an honor it was to be selected to be the first to get a chance to go into space."
During a meeting at the White House later, President Ronald Reagan said, "Let me just remind you when we had lunch here in the white house before your flight that somebody said sometimes the best man for the job is a woman. You were there because you were the best person for the job."
Ride blasted off a second time in 1984, using the Challenger's robot arm to launch an Earth observation satellite. She logged some 343 hours in space during her two missions and had been named to a third flight when the shuttle program was grounded in the wake of Challenger's destruction on Jan. 28, 1986.
Ride was selected to serve on the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident, chaired by former Secretary of State William Rogers, a panel that included such luminaries as Nobel prize winning physicist Richard Feynman and Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon.
Ride was still an active-duty astronaut when the panel did its work in the spring of 1986 and her grilling of NASA engineers about a long history of O-ring problems like the failure that doomed Challenger was memorable. She could not hide her amazement that mid-level NASA managers approved continued shuttle flights despite a known, potentially fatal defect.
Ride left the astronaut corps and resigned from NASA in 1987, becoming a science fellow at the Center for International Security and Arms Control at Stanford University. She joined the physics department at the University of California-San Diego in 1989 and served as director of the California Space Institute.
Long an advocate for science and math education, Ride set up Sally Ride Science in 2001 "to pursue her long-time passion for motivating young girls and boys to stick with their interests in science and to consider pursuing careers in science, technology, engineering, and math," her website said in its statement.
Ride was the co-author of seven science books aimed at children and helped organize the GRAIL MoonKAM program, letting kids in classrooms around the country take pictures of the lunar surface with a NASA satellite currently in orbit around the moon.
Ride was married to shuttle astronaut Steven Hawley in 1982, but the couple divorced in 1987. Her website said Ride was survived by her companion, Tam O'Shaughnessy, her mother, Joyce, a sister a niece and a nephew.
"She had the rare ability to understand the essence of things and to inspire those around her to join her pursuits," her website said.
"Sally's historic flight into space captured the nation's imagination and made her a household name. She became a symbol of the ability of women to break barriers and a hero to generations of adventurous young girls."
Sally Ride, first US woman in space, dies at 61
Seth Borenstein & Alicia Chang - Associated Press
Space used to be a man's world. Then came Sally Ride, who blazed a cosmic trail into orbit for U.S. women. With a pitch perfect name out of a pop song refrain, she joined the select club of American space heroes the public knew by heart: Shepard, Glenn, Armstrong and Aldrin.
Ride, the first American woman in orbit, died Monday at her home in the San Diego community of La Jolla at age 61 of pancreatic cancer, according to her company, Sally Ride Science.
Ride flew into space on the space shuttle Challenger on June 18, 1983, when she was 32. Since then, 42 other American women followed her into space.
"Sally was a national hero and a powerful role model. She inspired generations of young girls to reach for the stars," President Barack Obama said in a statement.
When shuttles started flying frequently with crews of six or seven, astronauts became plentiful and anonymous. Not Ride.
"People around the world still recognize her name as the first American woman in space, and she took that title seriously even after departing NASA," Eileen Collins, the first female space shuttle commander, said in a statement. "She never sought media attention for herself, but rather focused on doing her normally outstanding job."
When Ride first launched into space, feminist icons such as Gloria Steinem and Jane Fonda were at Kennedy Space Center and many wore T-shirts alluding to the pop song with the refrain of the same name: "Ride, Sally Ride."
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, a former astronaut, said Ride "broke barriers with grace and professionalism - and literally changed the face of America's space program."
"The nation has lost one of its finest leaders, teachers and explorers," he said in a statement.
Ride was a physicist, writer of five science books for children and president of her own company, which motivates youngsters to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and math. She had also been a professor of physics at the University of California, San Diego.
In 1978, NASA included women in the astronaut corps, selecting Ride and five other women to join the club, which had been dominated by male military test pilots. Ride beat out fellow astronaut candidates to be the first American female in space. Her first flight came two decades after the Soviets sent a woman into space and less than a year after a second Soviet woman flew.
"On launch day, there was so much excitement and so much happening around us in crew quarters, even on the way to the launch pad," Ride recalled in a NASA interview for the 25th anniversary of her flight in 2008. "I didn't really think about it that much at the time - but I came to appreciate what an honor it was to be selected to be the first to get a chance to go into space."
Ride flew in space twice, both times on Challenger, in 1983 and on October 5, 1984, logging 343 hours in space. A third flight was cancelled when Challenger exploded in 1986. She was on the commission investigating that accident and later served on the panel for the 2003 Columbia shuttle accident, the only person on both boards. She also was on the president's committee of science advisers.
The 20th anniversary of her first flight also coincided with the loss of Columbia, a bittersweet time for Ride, who discussed it in a 2003 interview with The Associated Press. She acknowledged it was depressing to spend the anniversary investigating the accident, which killed seven astronauts.
"But in another sense, it's rewarding because it's an opportunity to be part of the solution and part of the changes that will occur and will make the program better," she said.
Later in the interview, she focused on science education and talked about "being a role model and being very visible."
"She was very smart," said former astronaut Norman Thagard, who was on Ride's first flight. "We did have a good time."
It was all work on that first flight, except for a first-in-space sprint around the inside of the shuttle, Thagard recalled in a phone interview Monday. He didn't know who won.
Born on May 26, 1951, in Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley, Ride became fascinated with science early on, playing with a chemistry kit and telescope. She also excelled in tennis and competed in national junior tournaments.
She earned bachelor's degrees in physics and English from Stanford University in 1973 and a master's in 1975. She saw an ad in the student newspaper calling for scientists and engineers to apply to become astronauts and was chosen in 1978, the same year she earned her doctorate in physics from Stanford.
Ride was married to fellow astronaut Steve Hawley from 1982 to 1987. Hawley said Ride was never fully comfortable being in the spotlight.
"While she never enjoyed being a celebrity, she recognized that it gave her the opportunity to encourage children, particularly young girls, to reach their full potential," Hawley said in a statement released by NASA.
One of Ride's last legacies was allowing middle school students to take their own pictures of the moon using cameras aboard NASA's twin Grail spacecraft in a project spearheaded by her company.
"Sally literally could have done anything with her life. She decided to devote her life to education and to inspiring young people. To me, that's such a powerful thing. It's extraordinarily admirable," said Maria Zuber, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who heads the Grail mission.
Ride's office said she is survived by Tam O'Shaughnessy, her partner of 27 years and a co-founder of Sally Ride Science; her mother, Joyce; her sister, Bear, a niece; and a nephew.
Sally Ride dies at 61; was first American woman sent into space
T Rees Shapiro & Brian Vastag - Washington Post
Sally Ride, an astronaut and physicist who in 1983 became the first American woman sent into space and reluctantly served as an idol of feminist strength and a hero of women’s progress, died Monday at her home in La Jolla, Calif. She was 61.
She had pancreatic cancer, said Terry McEntee, her assistant.
Ms. Ride made history on June 18, 1983, when she orbited the Earth aboard the space shuttle Challenger. At 32 years and 23 days old, she was the youngest American to go into space.
In a statement, President Obama said that Ms. Ride “inspired generations of young girls to reach for the stars.”
He continued, “Sally’s life showed us that there are no limits to what we can achieve and I have no doubt that her legacy will endure for years to come.”
Yet the legacy Ms. Ride had earned as a space pioneer was one that she was reluctant to embrace. She rarely gave interviews, enjoyed not being recognized in public, and — unlike some of the daredevil pilots in the first class of astronauts — avoided attracting attention to herself and her achievements.
She maintained from the beginning that she had not intended “to become a historic figure or a symbol of progress for women.” At her request, NASA denied all requests for licenses to sell posters, T-shirts and other merchandise bearing her name and likeness.
For Ms. Ride, a theoretical astrophysicist, the real accomplishment of her debut journey into space was an experiment in which a 50-foot robotic arm was maneuvered to grasp a three-ton satellite hurtling above Earth.
At a NASA news conference, she told reporters: “It’s too bad this is such a big deal. It’s too bad our society isn’t further along.”
She was aware that two Russian female cosmonauts had preceded her into space, Valentina Tereshkova in 1963 and Svetlana Savitskaya in 1982.
Ms. Ride would fly to space only one more time, in a 197-hour mission again aboard the Challenger. It included observations of the Earth using satellites and high-tech cameras.
She had been scheduled to make a third trip, but it was canceled after the Challenger exploded Jan. 28, 1986, killing six NASA astronauts and teacher Christa McAuliffe. After serving on a presidential commission investigating the disaster, Ms. Ride resigned from NASA and turned to academia, as a physics professor at the University of California at San Diego. In 1986, she and former Washington Post staff writer Susan Okie published, “To Space and Back,” a book describing Ms. Ride’s astronaut career.
In the decades afterward, she shunned opportunities that would have put her in the spotlight. She had once called spaceflight “the most fun that I’ll ever have in my life” and said that leaving the program was hard.
It could be said that in one way or another, all of her early life had been preparation to become an astronaut. Sally Kristen Ride was born May 26, 1951, in Los Angeles. Her father was a political science professor at Santa Monica College, and her mother helped found the Mary Magdalene Project, which helps prostitutes escape the streets. As a teenager, Ms. Ride had excelled as an athlete, especially in tennis, where she learned to think quickly. She was encouraged by mentor and playing partner Billie Jean King to consider turning professional.
Despite her skill, she decided to stop playing. At Stanford University, she demonstrated wide-ranging intellectual interests, from physics to literature.
Ms. Ride told The Washington Post in 1983 that analyzing Shakespeare exercised her mind.
“It’s kind of like doing puzzles,” she said. “You had to figure out what he was trying to say and find all the little clues inside the play that you were right.”
At Stanford, Ms. Ride answered a college newspaper advertisement and applied for a position at NASA, which was then trying to add scientists to its ranks. She beat out 8,370 other applicants and, armed with a doctorate in physics from Stanford, joined the astronaut corps in 1978.
Until then, the astronaut corps was widely regarded as something of a boys’ club of fliers, mostly Navy and Air Force men.
NASA needed more astronauts for the shuttles, with a large schedule of flights planned. For the first time, the agency opened the corps to women.
The June 1983 launch that sent Ms. Ride into orbit was carried on television and considered a historic occasion. That seventh shuttle mission — the second for the Challenger — teamed Ride with four men. Her commander, Bob Crippen, quipped that they would be known only as the guys going into space with Sally Ride.
“She was a great crew member,” Crippen said Monday. “I was honored to fly with her twice. She was an ideal example to young women everywhere, telling them they can be and do anything.”
On her first flight, Ms. Ride served as a mission specialist, the title given to scientist astronauts. Using the robotic arm, she helped deploy a 3,300-pound satellite into space and then, using the arm again, recaptured it and brought the device back into the shuttle’s cargo bay. The experiment demonstrated the feasibility for NASA to recover broken satellites, repair them aboard the shuttle and release them back into orbit.
Offering suggestions that benefited the female astronauts who came after her, she asked that NASA make the seats on the space shuttle adjustable, add a curtain for the restroom area and reshape the vacuum toilet.
In 1984, Ms. Ride returned to space for her second and last mission. Operating the Challenger’s robotic arm, she deployed a satellite and supported her astronaut classmate Kathryn Sullivan, who on that mission floated into the shuttle’s payload bay and became the first American woman to spacewalk.
Ms. Ride was “a strong, strong competitor,” Sullivan said in an interview with The Post. “She was always challenging herself and challenging you.”
Margaret Rhea Seddon, another astronaut classmate, said she was not surprised that Ms. Ride was chosen ahead of the five other women. “Sally was definitely a standout from the very beginning. I knew she was very capable and she would represent us all well.”
In the mid-1980s, Ms. Ride donated her first flight suit to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, where it hangs inside a mock-up of a space shuttle. The light-blue jacket bears a name tag that says, simply, “Sally.”
After her space career, Ms. Ride devoted herself to bringing the excitement of science to children — especially girls. She helped found the Challenger Center for Space Science Education, based in Alexandria, and in 2001 launched Sally Ride Science, an educational company. She also co-wrote several books for children.
Ms. Ride’s marriage to astronaut Steve Hawley ended in divorce. Survivors include her mother, Joyce; and a sister. She is also survived by her partner of 27 years, Tam O’Shaughnessy. The two women co-wrote several books, including “The Third Planet” (1994), which won the American Institute of Physics Children’s Science Writing Award.
Upon their completion of the 1983 mission, President Ronald Reagan congratulated the astronauts on a job well done. Acknowledging Ms. Ride, he told her: “You were the best person for the job.”
American Woman Who Shattered Space Ceiling
Denise Grady - New York Times
Sally Ride, the first American woman to fly in space, died on Monday at her home in San Diego. She was 61.
The cause was pancreatic cancer, her company, Sally Ride Science, announced on its Web site.
Dr. Ride, a physicist who was accepted into the space program in 1978 after she answered a newspaper ad for astronauts, flew on the shuttle Challenger on June 18, 1983, and on a second mission in 1984. At 32, she was also the youngest American in space.
She later became the only person to sit on both panels investigating the catastrophic shuttle accidents that killed all astronauts on board — the Challenger explosion in 1986 and the Columbia crash in 2003.
Dr. Ride was finishing studies at Stanford University — she had degrees in physics and astrophysics (and also English) — and looking for a job when she saw NASA’s advertisement. She looked at the qualifications and said, “I’m one of those people,” she told The New York Times in 1982.
She applied, and made the cut.
“The women’s movement had already paved the way, I think, for my coming,” she said.
By the time she began studying laser physics at Stanford, women had already broken through into the physics department, once a boys’ club. And when she applied to the space program, NASA had already made a commitment to admit women.
But there were still rough spots. Speaking to reporters before the first shuttle flight, Dr. Ride — chosen in part because she was known for keeping her cool under stress — politely endured a barrage of questions focused on her sex: Would spaceflight affect her reproductive organs? Did she plan to have children? Would she wear a bra or makeup in space? Did she cry on the job? How would she deal with menstruation in space?
The CBS News reporter Diane Sawyer asked her to demonstrate a newly installed privacy curtain around the shuttle’s toilet. On “The Tonight Show,” Johnny Carson joked that the shuttle flight would be delayed because Dr. Ride had to find a purse to match her shoes.
At a NASA news conference, Dr. Ride said: “It’s too bad this is such a big deal. It’s too bad our society isn’t further along.”
The Soviets had already sent two women into space. When one came aboard a space station, a male cosmonaut welcomed her by saying the kitchen and an apron were all ready for her.
In her early days at NASA, Dr. Ride trained in parachute jumping, water survival, weightlessness and the huge G-forces of a rocket launch. She learned to fly a jet plane. She also switched from physics to engineering and helped in the development of a robotic arm for the space shuttle. The Challenger commander, Robert L. Crippen, chose her for the 1983 mission in part because of her expertise with the device. She was part of a crew of five that spent about six days in space, during which she used the arm to deploy and retrieve a satellite.
At Cape Canaveral, many in the crowd of 250,000 that watched the launching wore T-shirts that said, “Ride, Sally Ride” — from the lyrics of the song “Mustang Sally.”
The next day, Gloria Steinem, editor of Ms. magazine at the time, said, “Millions of little girls are going to sit by their television sets and see they can be astronauts, heroes, explorers and scientists.”
When the shuttle landed, Dr. Ride told reporters, “I’m sure it was the most fun that I’ll ever have in my life.”
Her next mission, in 1984, lasted about eight days. She was on the roster for another shuttle flight before the Challenger blew up on Jan. 28, 1986, 73 seconds after taking off from Cape Canaveral. But the program was immediately suspended, and she retired the next year.
As a member of the panel appointed by President Ronald Reagan to investigate the accident, Ms. Ride gained a reputation for asking tough questions. The panel learned from testimony and other evidence that there had been signs of trouble on earlier Challenger flights, but that they had been dismissed as not critical. Dr. Ride told a colleague it was difficult not to be angered by the findings.
One witness was Roger Boisjoly, an engineer who had worked for the company that made the shuttle’s rocket boosters and who had been shunned by colleagues for revealing that he had warned his bosses and NASA that the boosters’ seals, called O-rings, could fail in cold weather. The Challenger had taken off on a cold morning.
After his testimony, Dr. Ride, who was known to be reserved and reticent, publicly hugged him. She was the only panelist to offer him support. Mr. Boisjoly, who died in February, said her gesture had helped sustain him during a troubled time.
In 2003, after sitting on a shuttle-disaster panel for the second time, Dr. Ride said in an interview with The Times that part of the problem at NASA was that people had forgotten some of the lessons learned from the Challenger accident. The panel had months earlier expressed its conviction that the disintegration of the shuttle Columbia over Texas was triggered when a chunk of foam insulation fell off the external fuel tank and gashed the leading edge of the wing.
But she also said: “I flew the shuttle twice. It got me home twice. I like the shuttle.”
In 1987, Dr. Ride led a study team that wrote a report advising NASA on the future direction of the space program. The team recommended an outpost on the Moon, though not a “race to Mars.” But Mars should still be the “ultimate objective,” the group said. In the report, Dr. Ride wrote that a lunar outpost would combine “adventure, science, technology and perhaps the seeds of enterprise.” She also noted darkly that the United States had “lost leadership” to the Soviet Union in a number of aspects of space exploration.
The same year, Dr. Ride retired from NASA and became a science fellow at the Center for International Security and Arms Control at Stanford. In 1989, she became a professor of physics and director of the California Space Institute at the University of California, San Diego.
She also developed a passion for trying to interest young people, especially girls, in science, math and technology. She wrote six science books for children, including one that explained how to make a sandwich in space. (She advised eating it fast, before it floated away.)
In 2001 she started a company, Sally Ride Science, to “make science and engineering cool again,” as she put it, by providing science-oriented school programs, materials and teacher training.
Dr. Ride was known for guarding her privacy. She rejected most offers for product endorsements, memoirs and movies, and her reticence lasted to the end. At her request, NASA kept her illness secret.
In 1983, writing in The Washington Post, Susan Okie, a journalist and longtime friend, described Dr. Ride as elusive and enigmatic, protective of her emotions.
“During college and graduate school,” Dr. Okie wrote, “I had to interrogate her to find out what was happening in her personal life.”
Dr. Okie quoted Dr. Ride’s younger sister, the Rev. Karen Scott, a Presbyterian minister, as saying, “ ‘Closeness’ is not a word that is often used to describe relationships in our family.” Dr. Ride always needed to be in control, her mother told Dr. Okie.
In a statement on Monday afternoon, President Obama said Dr. Ride had been “a national hero and a powerful role model.”
“She inspired generations of young girls to reach for the stars and later fought tirelessly to help them get there by advocating for a greater focus on science and math in our schools,” he said. “Sally’s life showed us that there are no limits to what we can achieve.”
Sally Kristen Ride was born on May 26, 1951, in Encino, part of Los Angeles. Her father was a political science professor at Santa Monica College, and her mother worked as a volunteer counselor at women’s correctional facility. Both parents were elders in the Presbyterian Church.
From an early age, Dr. Ride gravitated toward math and science. She was strong-willed and athletic, and became so obsessed with playing football in the street that her parents pushed her into tennis lessons because it was a safer sport. She was soon playing in tournaments.
Dr. Ride attended Westlake High School, a girls’ prep school in Beverly Hills. Dr. Okie was her schoolmate, and wrote that she and Dr. Ride, both on scholarship, felt out of place among the actors’ daughters and “Bel Air belles” at the school. Dr. Ride did not have to work hard for good grades, called herself an underachiever and refused to feign interest if she was bored in class. But it was at Westlake that Dr. Ride found a mentor and friend in Elizabeth Mommaerts, a science teacher whom she described as “logic personified.” A great enthusiast for research, Dr. Mommaerts invited her favorite students, Dr. Ride among them, to her home to sample French food and wine and to hear stories about her life in Europe.
(Later, in graduate school, Dr. Ride was devastated to learn that Dr. Mommaerts had committed suicide. When she was chosen to be an astronaut, the one person she wanted most to call was Dr. Mommaerts, she told Dr. Okie. “And I can’t,” she said.)
After graduating from high school in 1968, Dr. Ride attended Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania but quit after three semesters. She was homesick for California and was considering a career in tennis. She practiced for several hours a day, and also began taking physics courses at the University of California, Los Angeles. In 1970, she enrolled at Stanford as a junior. She played tennis for Stanford, became the team’s No. 1 women’s singles player and was nationally ranked. She taught at summer tennis camps, and at one of them she met Billie Jean King, who urged her to quit college and become a professional tennis player. She did not take that advice.
Years later, when a child asked her what made her decide to be a scientist instead of a tennis player, she laughed and said, “A bad forehand.”
She received bachelor’s degrees in physics and English in 1973 (her specialty was Shakespeare), a master’s degree in physics in 1975 and a Ph.D. in astrophysics in 1978, all from Stanford. Her graduate work involved X-ray astronomy and free-electron lasers.
In 2003, Dr. Ride told The Times that stereotypes still persisted about girls and science and math — for example the idea that girls had less ability or interest in those subjects, or would be unpopular if they excelled in them. She thought peer pressure, especially in middle school, began driving girls away from the sciences, so she continued to set up science programs all over the country meant to appeal to girls — science festivals, science camps, science clubs — to help them find mentors, role models and one another.
“It’s no secret that I’ve been reluctant to use my name for things,” she said. “I haven’t written my memoirs or let the television movie be made about my life. But this is something I’m very willing to put my name behind.”
Dr. Ride married a fellow astronaut, Steven Hawley, in 1982. They decorated their master bedroom with a large photograph of astronauts on the moon. They divorced in 1987. Dr. Ride is survived by her partner of 27 years, Tam O’Shaughnessy; her mother, Joyce; and her sister, Ms. Scott, who is known as Bear. (Dr. O’Shaughnessy is chief operating officer of Dr. Ride’s company.)
Dr. Ride told interviewers that what drove her was not the desire to become famous or to make history as the first woman in space. All she wanted to do was fly, she said, to soar into space, float around weightless inside the shuttle, look out at the heavens and gaze back at Earth. In photographs of her afloat in the spaceship, she was grinning, as if she had at long last reached the place she was meant to be.
Sally Ride remembered for handling historic role with grace
Monte Morin & Scott Gold - Los Angeles Times
As friends and former colleagues remembered astronaut Sally Ride, who died Monday of pancreatic cancer, a common theme was the grace with which she handled the responsibility of being the first American woman to fly in space.
“She was a terribly nice person and, not surprisingly, enormously poised,” said Lynn Eden, a senior research scholar at the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University, where Ride held a science fellowship from 1987 to 1989 when it was called the Center for International Security and Arms Control. “She was aware of her historic role, but she carried it lightly.”
Ride was one of six women to join NASA’s astronaut corps in 1978, and she flew on shuttle missions in 1983 and 1984. On both flights, the shuttle commander was Robert L. Crippen.
“She was the kind of person that broke a lot of glass ceilings for women back in the '80s,” said Crippen, who is retired and lives in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. “She was a fantastic person, and we’re going to miss her very much.”
At the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Canada-Flintridge, astrophysicist Fiona A. Harrison said Monday that she still had vivid memories of watching the space shuttle Challenger blast off in 1983 with Ride aboard.
"I can remember being young and following the Apollo landings. I remember this kind of similarly -- it was a big barrier to break, to have a woman astronaut in what had been a male-dominated world," she said.
Now at the helm of a space mission herself -- she serves as principle investigator for NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR – Harrison said she has been mindful of Ride's efforts to be a role model for girls interested in science.
"She really poured her energy into that and made such a big difference for girls who were aspiring to be scientists and engineers," she said. "It's a terrible loss."
First U.S. Woman to Fly in Space
Stephen Miller - Wall Street Journal
Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, died Monday. She was 61 years old and had been suffering from pancreatic cancer.
Her death was announced by Sally Ride Science, a science-education company she founded to motivate children to pursue careers in science and technology.
Ms. Ride first blasted into space on June 18, 1983, aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger, at age 32. The mission came two decades after the Soviet Union sent a woman into space.
A year later, Ms. Ride flew on the Challenger a second time. After Ms. Ride, 42 more American women have flown in space, a NASA spokesman said.
"Sally was a national hero and a powerful role model," President Barack Obama said in a statement.
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said that Ms. Ride "broke barriers with grace and professionalism—and literally changed the face of America's space program."
A native of Los Angeles, Ms. Ride earned a Ph.D. in physics before joining NASA in 1978. She was among the first six women to be trained by NASA as astronauts, and along with the 29 men trained that year, the class was known as the "Thirty-Five New Guys."
In 1983, as a mission specialist aboard the space shuttle, Ms. Ride helped launch communications satellites and operated a robot arm that she had helped to develop for NASA.
Ms. Ride was slated for a third shuttle flight when the Challenger exploded after taking off in 1986. She was named to the Rogers Commission, which investigated the disaster. Ms. Ride also was on the commission that investigated the 2003 Space Shuttle Columbia disaster.
She also worked as a NASA administrator for long-range and strategic planning.
In 2009, Ms. Ride was a member of the Augustine Committee, appointed by President Obama to make recommendations on the future of NASA's human-spaceflight programs.
"We need to get NASA out of the business of getting crew" to low-earth orbit, she told The Wall Street Journal at the time.
Ms. Ride earned undergraduate degrees at Stanford in English and physics, and continued on at the university for a doctorate in physics. Her dissertation was titled "The Interaction of X-Rays with the Interstellar Medium."
When she left NASA in 1987 to join a think tank at Stanford, NASA administrator James Fletcher called her career "one of the most varied and productive in agency history."
She later became a professor of physics at the University of California at San Diego.
At NASA, Ms. Ride was the focus of intense interest from around the world.
Two female cosmonauts had been launched earlier, including one in 1963, but a woman in space was new to the West, and Ms. Ride was feisty and photogenic.
"It's time women in this country realize that women in this country can do any job they want to," she told USA Today shortly before her first launch.
Appreciation: Sally Ride, First American Woman in Space
Jeffrey Kluger - Time
Here's how Sally Ride knew she was special: The day she was assigned to her first space flight, she was summoned to meet with Chris Kraft. Kraft was the soon-to-retire director of the Manned Spaceflight Center in Houston. But that was just a title. Kraft was already as much NASA symbol as NASA official; he was the man who'd been choosing astronauts and managing missions since the days of Mercury. He was the man who made careers and, in the case of a few unfortunate astronauts who crossed him by fouling up in flight, the man who ended them. He scared the daylights out of any American who had any hope of flying in space.
Ride knew that she wasn't being called to see Kraft because she'd done something wrong. She was being called because she'd been chosen to be part of the crew of the space shuttle Challenger's June, 1983 mission — making her the first American woman to fly in space, 20 years almost to the day after Russia's Valeltina Tereshkova became the first woman ever to do so.
"[Kraft] wanted to have a chat with me and make sure I knew what I was getting into before I went on the crew," Ride said. "I was so dazzled to be on the crew and go into space I remembered very little of what he said."
Ride, who died Monday at age 61 after a battle with pancreatic cancer, did not dazzle easily. She described her first view of Earth from orbit as "spectacular," a coin-of-the-realm adjective for astronauts. But beyond that, she kept things clinical, observational. Looking down at Earth from space was "a chance to see our planet as a planet," said the Stanford grad with the PhD in physics. She spoke not without appreciation for what she was given the opportunity to do, but with a scientist's conviction that that was an opportunity not to exult but to learn.
Ride flew a second time, in 1984, also aboard Challenger. It was thus fitting that she was named to the panel that investigated the death of her ship after it exploded during ascent in 1986. She was tapped again for mortician's duty in 2003, after Columbia disintegrated during reentry, and if that was more than even a scientist's heart could bear without cracking, she didn't say so. She left NASA in 1987 to return to Stanford and later to teach at the University of California, San Diego. In 2001, she founded Sally Ride Science, a company that developed science curricula for students.
Ride was not old enough to have applied for a spot at NASA in the days that women in the space community were either wives, daughters, groupies or spacesuit seamstresses. And that's a good thing, because the only way she could have made a mark in that world then would have been as a wife, daughter, groupie or seamstress. But she surely was old enough to understand the sting those woman felt; old enough to know that while the NASA of the 1950s made a pro forma gesture of considering female applicants for the astronaut corps, those same women were the object of eye-rolls at best, jokes or disdain at worst. Their applications were accepted simply as an act of bureaucratic box-checking.
By the mid 1970s that had changed just enough that Ride could apply to she shuttle program — one of 8,000 astronaut candidates given consideration, By 1978, she was named part of an incoming astronaut class that included five other women and 29 men. They were referred to around NASA as "the 35 new guys," and if the six who didn't quite fit that description minded, they said nothing.
Space has no shortage of icons and giants. Ride — not the first person in space, not even the first woman in space — will never be in the pantheon of Glenn or Armstrong or Gagarin or Leonov or Lovell or Shepard . But she, oddly, holds a more secure historical spot. Kraft once said that every crew he ever flew was, by definition, better than the one before it, because each one had learned from the earlier ones. There's a fungible quality to men who are evaluated that way — even if that's the way all exploration progresses.
There was nothing fungible about Sally Ride. When she climbed into Challenger on June 18, 1983 and the hatch was closed and sealed behind her, a far bigger cultural door opened — and every American woman who has flown a military plane or a commercial jet or a spacecraft since followed her through it. Godspeed, Sally Ride.
Sally Ride dead at 61
Eric Berger - Houston Chronicle
Sally Ride, the first American woman in space and later a champion of math and science education, died of pancreatic cancer Monday. She was 61.
A mission specialist on space shuttle Challenger, which launched June 18, 1983, Ride flew again aboard Challenger in 1984 before embarking on a career as a physicist and educator.
President Barack Obama said he and his wife, Michelle, were "deeply saddened" by Ride's passing. "Sally was a national hero and a powerful role model," he said. "She inspired generations of young girls to reach for the stars and later fought tirelessly to help them get there by advocating for a greater focus on science and math in our schools. Sally's life showed us that there are no limits to what we can achieve, and I have no doubt that her legacy will endure for years to come."
NASA hailed Ride as a trailblazer. "Sally Ride broke barriers with grace and professionalism - and literally changed the face of America's space program," said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden.
Peggy Whitson, chief of the astronaut office, said Ride was a pioneer for women in space. "The selection of the 1978 Astronaut Class that included Sally and several other women, had a huge impact on my dream to become an astronaut,'' said Whitson. "The success of those women, with Sally paving the way, made my dream seem one step closer to becoming a reality."
Ride was the third woman in space, following Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, who flew in 1963, and Svetlana Yevgenyevna Savitskaya, who flew in 1982. At 32 years and 23 days old, she was also the youngest American to go into space.
Before the first shuttle flight, Ride - chosen in part because she was known for keeping cool under stress - politely endured reporters' asking whether spaceflight would affect her reproductive organs, whether she would wear a bra or makeup in space, whether she cried on the job, how she would handle menstruation in space. On "The Tonight Show," Johnny Carson joked that the shuttle flight would be delayed because Ride had to find a purse to match her shoes.
At a NASA news conference, Ride said: "It's too bad this is such a big deal. It's too bad our society isn't further along."
A tennis player first
Ride was born in Los Angeles in 1951. Her father was a political science professor at Santa Monica College, and her mother a counselor at a women's correctional facility.
From an early age, Ride gravitated toward math and science. She was strong-willed and athletic, and became so obsessed with playing football in the street that her parents pushed her into tennis because it was safer. She was soon playing in tournaments.
After graduating from high school in 1968, she attended Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania but quit after three semesters. She was homesick and considering a career in tennis. In 1970, she enrolled at Stanford, where she became a nationally ranked player. She taught at summer tennis camps, and at one of them met Billie Jean King, who urged her to become a professional tennis player. She did not take that advice.
Reaching for the stars
Ride often recalled that as a child her father encouraged her to reach for the stars. So she did.
Ride was finishing at Stanford - degrees in physics and astrophysics, and English - when she saw a NASA advertisement for astronaut applications. She made the cut. "The women's movement had already paved the way, I think, for my coming," she said.
Ride's astronaut Class of 1978 was known as the TFNGs - Thirty-Five New Guys. It was NASA's first class in nine years, and led NASA from the Apollo era through the space shuttle program and construction of the International Space Station. It included NASA's first six female astronauts as well as the first African and Asian Americans in space.
In her early days at NASA, Ride helped to develop a robotic arm for the space shuttle. The Challenger commander, Robert Crippen, chose her for the 1983 mission in part because of her expertise with the device. During that mission Ride and the four male members of her crew deployed two communications satellites and performed a number of science experiments.
After the Challenger explosion in January 1986 she served as a member of the Rogers commission investigating that accident's cause before leaving NASA in 1987 to return to Stanford, where she worked as a physicist. Following the disintegration of shuttle Columbia in 2003, Ride served on the board investigating that accident. She was the only person to sit on both.
'An amazing legacy'
In 2001 she founded Sally Ride Science, an organization that focuses on science, technology, engineering and math education among elementary and middle school students, and conducts Sally Ride Festivals for girls around the country, including at Rice University. She wrote six science books for children.
"She leaves an amazing legacy of excellence and commitment and will always have an important place in the nation's history as one of the pioneers of the space age and one who knew firsthand the power of the space program to inspire young people - especially young girls - to pursue scientific education," said Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas.
In 1982 Ride married astronaut Steve Hawley, but they divorced in 1987. Her survivors include Tam O'Shaughnessy, her partner of 27 years.
"Sally was a very private person who found herself a very public persona," Hawley said.
"It was a role in which she was never fully comfortable. I was privileged to be a part of her life and be in a position to support her as she became the first American woman to fly in space."
Sally Ride's 'star will always shine brightly'
America's first woman in space, who inspired a nation, loses cancer battle at 61
Todd Halvorson - Florida Today
America’s first lady in space was remembered Monday as a reluctant celebrity who cared deeply about the nation’s space program and devoted her post-NASA career to keeping middle-school kids — especially girls — hooked on science, math, technology and engineering.
Sally Kristen Ride, 61, died peacefully after a courageous 17-month battle with pancreatic cancer. Her death came 29 years and a month after she broke a gender barrier by launching into space aboard shuttle Challenger.
“She lived her life to the fullest, with boundless energy, curiosity, intelligence, passion, joy, and love,” friends wrote in a statement posted on the web site of her business, Sally Ride Science. “Her integrity was absolute; her spirit was immeasurable; her approach to life was fearless.”
Ride became a household name when she rocketed into orbit on June 18, 1983. But she never was at ease with fame.
“Sally was a very private person who found herself a very public persona. It was a role in which she was never fully comfortable,” said fellow U.S. astronaut Steve Hawley, who was married to Ride from 1982 through 1987.
“While she never enjoyed being a celebrity, she recognized that it gave her the opportunity to encourage children, particularly young girls, to reach their full potential,” Hawley said.
Ride “allowed many young girls across the world to believe they could achieve anything if they studied and worked hard. I think she would be pleased with that legacy.”
Ride’s signature autograph sign-off: “Reach for the Stars.”
“She always did, and now she’s there,” longtime co-worker Brenda Wilson posted on her Facebook wall.
Ride is survived by her partner of more than two decades, Tam O’Shaughnessy; her mother, Joyce; her sister, Bear; her niece, Caitlin; and nephew, Whitney; her staff of 40 at Sally Ride Science and many friends and colleagues around the nation and the world.
“Sally Ride broke barriers with grace and professionalism — and literally changed the face of America’s space program,” said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, also a fellow astronaut. “The nation has lost one of its finest leaders, teachers and explorers. Our thoughts and prayers are with Sally’s family and the many she inspired. She will be missed, but her star will always shine brightly.”
Veteran astronaut Robert "Bob" Crippen, who commanded both of Ride's shuttle missions, said her death "was a shock to me. I didn't know she was ill."
"Sally broke through lots of glass ceilings being the first U.S. woman to fly in space. She was a great crew member that could do anything asked of her. More importantly, she could inspire young women that they could be anything they aspired to. Furthermore, she continued to excite young women to study science, math and engineering after she left NASA."
Astronaut and much more
An accomplished physicist, astronaut, author and entrepreneur, Ride also was an accident investigator and an influential space policy player. She was the only person to serve on the presidential commission that investigated the 1986 Challenger accident as well as the 2003 Columbia Accident Investigation Board.
Famously, she concluded that NASA made the same types of errors in judgment and decision-making with the technical problems that led up to both accidents. Fourteen astronauts were killed in the tragedies.
“I think I’m hearing an echo here,” Ride said in 2003.
NASA experienced problems with shuttle solid rocket booster O-ring seals on 12 of 24 flights prior to the disastrous Challenger accident. NASA records showed that launch debris — primarily external tank foam insulation — damaged shuttle orbiters on 112 of 113 flights leading up to the Columbia accident.
Booster O-ring seal damage “had been a problem on not just one, not just two, not just three, but several shuttle flights before the Challenger accident,” Ride said.
“We’re trying to understand whether the same thinking crept in (prior to the Columbia accident) with the foam off the tank.”
It did. And the safety changes made in the wake of the Columbia accident enabled NASA to return the shuttle fleet to service and safely complete the assembly of the International Space Station in 2011.
President Barack Obama called Ride “a national hero and powerful role model.”
“Sally’s life showed us that there are no limits to what we can achieve, and I have no doubt that her legacy will endure for years to come.”
How it began
Born May 26, 1951, in Encino, Calif., Ride’s father was a professor of political science and her mother was a counselor. She grew up playing with a chemistry set and a telescope. She also was a stellar tennis player. Her backhand was wicked. But her forehand was lacking. So she passed on being a professional tennis player and instead became an astronaut.
Ride was thumbing through the student newspaper at Stanford University in 1977 when she saw a story about NASA seeking astronauts for its nascent space shuttle program. She already had degrees in English and physics, and was working on her doctorate in physics, and for the first time, NASA aimed to add women to its astronaut corps.
Ride and 8,000 other people sent in job applications. From them, the “Thirty-Five New Guys” — the nickname for the 1978 class of astronauts — were selected. Six were women. Ride was one of them.
What followed was a year of intense training: parachute jumping, water survival training, flights on NASA’s “Vomit Comet,” an airplane that flew parabolic arcs. Ride was the “Capsule Communicator,” or “Capcom,” for the second and third shuttle flights in 1981 and 1982.
She also played an instrumental role in the development of the shuttle’s 50-foot robotic arm, which enabled astronauts to deploy or service the Hubble Space Telescope and scores of other spacecraft during 30 years of shuttle flights.
Ride became the youngest astronaut to fly in space at 32. She and a crew of five deployed two communications satellites and carried out several science experiments.
“I didn’t really think about it that much at the time,” Ride recalled in a NASA interview on the 25th anniversary of her historic flight. “But I came to appreciate what an honor it was to be selected to be the first (American woman) to get a chance to go into space.”
Ride flew again on Challenger in 1984. She and six crewmates deployed an Earth sciences satellite and a technology demonstration spacecraft. Crewmate Kathryn Sullivan became the first American woman to walk in space during orbital tests of satellite refueling techniques.
She was scheduled to fly a third mission in 1986, but the shuttle fleet was grounded indefinitely after the Challenger accident. Ride retired from NASA in 1987 after a stint at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., where she produced an acclaimed report on the future of U.S. Human Space Flight.
She started up Sally Ride Science — a company that holds science festivals for middle-school students around the country — in 2001. And she served on an Obama Administration committee that charted a new course for U.S. Human Space Flight in 2009.
Controversial in some circles, the course calls for NASA to invest in the development of commercial space taxis to ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station and other destinations in low-Earth orbit.
The idea is to buy round-trip tickets from U.S. private sector companies, freeing up NASA to develop the rockets and spacecraft required for deep space missions to the moon, Mars, asteroids or other interplanetary destinations.
“I think it gets NASA back doing what NASA should be doing, which is focusing on the technologies and focusing on the things that are hard — the grand challenges of space exploration,” Ride said in April 2010.
Sally Ride, first U.S. woman in space, dies at 61
Dan Vergano - USA Today
Streaking through a cloud-flecked Saturday morning sky, the space shuttle carried Sally Ride into history, the first American woman in space on June 18, 1983.
Ride was more than just a physicist, educator and astronaut. She carried the hopes and aspirations of a generation on the flight, a symbol of the ascent of American women in our nation's working life.
Ride, 61, died Monday in La Jolla, Calif., of pancreatic cancer. In her lifetime, she twice visited space, took a leading role in NASA's response to both space shuttle disasters and devoted herself to education, seeking to inspire more young women to pursue life in science.
"Sally was a national hero and a powerful role model. She inspired generations of young girls to reach for the stars," President Obama said in a statement.
"The nation has lost one of its finest leaders, teachers and explorers," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, said in a statement. "Sally Ride broke barriers with grace and professionalism — and literally changed the face of America's space program."
Ride was part of the first class of female astronauts in 1978, a turn away from the exclusively male, military pilots of the Apollo era to mission specialists, doctors and scientists in the space shuttle era.
"The fact that I was going to be the first American woman to go into space carried huge expectations along with it," Ride said in a 2008 space agency interview. "I didn't really think about it that much at the time …but I came to appreciate what an honor it was to be selected to be the first to get a chance to go into space."
Her launch riveted the nation, the seventh space shuttle trip sent to orbit and the second by the space shuttle Challenger.
"People pulled off the road in Florida to see the launch, waving signs that said 'Ride, Sally Ride,' for miles around. It was a very big deal," says space historian Margaret Weitekamp of the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. "She never really traded on her celebrity. She saw being an astronaut as a way to advance science and allow other young women to take the same opportunities she had."
Ride took part in reviews of NASA failures after the 1986 Challenger and the 2003 Columbia tragedies, as well as the 2009 blue-ribbon panel that set the course for the space agency's current astronauts' plans.
It was in education, particularly inspiring girls to pursue careers in science, engineering and technology, that Ride focused her efforts after leaving NASA to teach at the University of California-San Diego. She also founded her own company, Sally Ride Science, which organized camps, festivals and an academy to inspire kids.
"She was on the short list of many administrations to head NASA, but she never pursued that track. She could have. She was always more interested in education," says Roger Launius, who was NASA's chief historian during Ride's flight.
A private person despite her fame, news of Ride's death after a 17-month battle with pancreatic cancer surprised many in the space community.
"Sally lived her life to the fullest, with boundless energy, curiosity, intelligence, passion, commitment and love," said a statement from Sally Ride Science on Monday.
In addition to educator Tam O'Shaughnessy, her partner of 27 years, she was survived by her mother, Joyce; her sister, Bear; her niece, Caitlin, and nephew, Whitney, the statement said.
Sally Ride, First U.S. Woman In Space, Dies
Aviation Week
Sally Ride, the first U.S. woman to travel into space, died in San Diego today after a 17-month battle with pancreatic cancer, according to her organization, Sally Ride Science. She was 61.
Ride, a physicist, lifted off aboard the space shuttle Challenger on June 18, 1983.
“Sally’s historic flight into space captured the nation’s imagination and made her a household name,” Sally Ride Science said in a statement.
“Sally Ride broke barriers with grace and professionalism — and literally changed the face of America’s space program,” NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said in a statement. “The nation has lost one of its finest leaders, teachers and explorers. Our thoughts and prayers are with Sally’s family and the many she inspired. She will be missed, but her star will always shine brightly.”
After two trips to orbit aboard the shuttle, Ride went on to an academic career at the University of California, San Diego. She also held the distinction of being the only person to serve as a member of both investigation boards following NASA’s two space shuttle accidents, according to the agency.
Ride also served as a member of the Review of U.S. Human Spaceflight Plans Committee in 2009 that informed many of the decisions about NASA’s current human spaceflight programs.
Ride joined NASA as part of the 1978 astronaut class, the first to include women. She trained for five years before she and three of her classmates were assigned to STS-7. The six-day mission deployed two communications satellites and performed a number of science experiments.
1st US spacewoman, Sally Ride, pushed frontiers
Marcia Dunn - Associated Press
Sally Ride loved everything about space. What she didn't like was being the first American woman to experience it.
It took years - if not decades - for her to get comfortable with her galactic status.
What drew her out was her San Diego-based education company, Sally Ride Science, which promotes science and math careers for girls and young women. She was determined to give back and she did, a thousand times over before her death of pancreatic cancer on Monday at age 61.
Ride burst onto the public stage when NASA chose her to be the nation's first woman in space.
With her catchy space-flying name and rock-solid science credentials, Ride inspired females the world over with her historic shuttle flight in 1983, five years after she and five other women gained entry to NASA's exclusively male astronaut club.
Some of those girls who looked up to Ride, way back when, went on to become astronauts themselves. Ride, a physicist, proved that women could be equal partners in space and that they, too, could aspire to such heights.
Ride was intensely private, though, and spurned the news media.
Her astronaut ex-husband, Steve Hawley, recalled Monday how she found herself "a very public persona," and "it was a role in which she was never fully comfortable."
"While she never enjoyed being a celebrity, she recognized that it gave her the opportunity to encourage children, particularly young girls, to reach their full potential," Hawley said in a statement.
In all, Ride flew just twice in space, both times aboard Challenger. A third shot at orbit vanished when the Challenger blew up. She found herself investigating the 1986 launch accident and in 2003 was back on a presidential panel looking into Columbia's destruction during its trip back to Earth, the echoes, as she put it, coming in loud and clear.
She lamented the fact that on the 20th anniversary of her record-breaking spaceflight, she was presiding over yet another shuttle tragedy.
Yet she said she'd jump at the chance to fly again on a shuttle, even after such horrific events, provided she could skip all the hard work that went into a mission.
There were times, though, that she wished she hadn't been first. Her female astronaut colleagues back then said they were glad it wasn't them.
The scrutiny, in and outside NASA, was off the scale. Ride was bombarded with sexist questions by reporters before her maiden voyage.
One newsman asked whether Ride wept when things went wrong. Another reporter asked if she planned to have children, and another wondered if she'd wear a bra in space. "There is no sag in zero-g," she replied.
At one point, Ride complained, "It's too bad this society isn't further along and this is still such a big deal."
She refused this reporter's request for an interview on the 10-year anniversary of her flight, but accepted a chance at reminiscing on the 20th.
"It was a huge honor," Ride said in an interview with The Associated Press in 2003. "On the other hand, it sure did complicate things. I'm the sort of person who likes to be able to just walk into the supermarket and not be recognized. I can do that most of the time now."
"A lot of people recognize the name. Very few recognize my face. That's very good," she said, laughing. "That is very good."
Ride was encouraging and highly supportive when astronaut Eileen Collins became the first female shuttle pilot and, consequently, commander back in the 1990s.
Collins was among the young women inspired by Ride's courageous journey and, like so many others, were stunned to learn of her death.
"Sally left us too soon," Collins said in a statement put out by NASA. "God Speed Sally, you will be greatly missed."
Sally Ride Remembered: Tributes to 1st American Woman in Space
Space.com
Sally Ride, the first American woman to fly in space, died Monday (July 23) at the age of 61.
Ride made history when she launched aboard the space shuttle Challenger on the STS-7 mission in 1983. She became only the third woman to ever travel in space, after Soviet cosmonauts Valentina Tereshkova in 1963 and Svetlana Savitskaya in 1982.
Ride traveled into space once more in 1984, as a member of the STS-41G crew on the space shuttle Challenger. Over the course of her career, Ride logged a total of 343 hours in space.
Sally Ride's death came after 17 months of battling pancreatic cancer. Here are some tributes to Sally Ride from astronauts, scientists, historians, industry officials and other luminaries:
Barack Obama, President of the United States
Michelle and I were deeply saddened to hear about the passing of Sally Ride. As the first American woman to travel into space, Sally was a national hero and a powerful role model. She inspired generations of young girls to reach for the stars and later fought tirelessly to help them get there by advocating for a greater focus on science and math in our schools. Sally’s life showed us that there are no limits to what we can achieve and I have no doubt that her legacy will endure for years to come. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Sally’s family and friends.
Charles Bolden, NASA Administrator
Sally Ride broke barriers with grace and professionalism — and literally changed the face of America's space program. The nation has lost one of its finest leaders, teachers and explorers. Our thoughts and prayers are with Sally's family and the many she inspired. She will be missed, but her star will always shine brightly.
Lori Garver, NASA Deputy Administrator
Sally was a personal and professional role model to me and thousands of women around the world. Her spirit and determination will continue to be an inspiration for women everywhere.
Eileen M. Collins, former astronaut and space shuttle commander
I am surprised and saddened by the news of Sally Ride’s passing. She was such a wonderful role model and source of inspiration to me. People around the world still recognize her name as the first American woman in space, and she took that title seriously even after departing NASA.
She mentored me several times during my astronaut career, leaving me with many cherished memories. She never sought media attention for herself, but rather focused on doing her normally outstanding job. Her “Sally Ride Science” programs have reached thousands of middle school girls, giving them the confidence to stay focused on math and science, even when the mass media message was otherwise. She also played a notable role in both the Challenger and Columbia accident investigations. Sally left us too soon. Godspeed Sally, you will be greatly missed.
Sally Ride Science, Company Statement
Sally lived her life to the fullest, with boundless energy, curiosity, intelligence, passion, commitment, and love. Her integrity was absolute; her spirit was immeasurable; her approach to life was fearless.
Sally was a physicist, the first American woman to fly in space, a science writer, and the President and CEO of Sally Ride Science. She had the rare ability to understand the essence of things and to inspire those around her to join her pursuits.
Steve Hawley, Former NASA astronaut, ex-husband
(married to Ride from 1982 to 1987)
Sally was a very private person who found herself a very public persona. It was a role in which she was never fully comfortable. I was privileged to be a part of her life and be in a position to support her as she became the first American woman to fly in space.
While she never enjoyed being a celebrity, she recognized that it gave her the opportunity to encourage children, particularly young girls, to reach their full potential. Sally Ride, the astronaut and the person, allowed many young girls across the world to believe they could achieve anything if they studied and worked hard. I think she would be pleased with that legacy. [Video: Sally Ride's Memories of Historic Spaceflight]
George Whitesides, president and CEO of Virgin Galactic
Sally was an American hero and a historic space explorer. Her legacy will be in the millions of kids that she inspired by her mission and in the educational efforts that followed. It will also be in the positive changes and insights she brought to American space policy through her continued service to the country. She was committed, intelligent, serious about our biggest challenges, and had a wonderful sense of humor. Our nation and planet have lost an incredible human being.
John Logsdon, Professor Emeritus at George Washington University
Sally Ride's impact on the U.S. space program, and indeed on this country overall, was pervasive. From her pioneering flight as the first U.S. woman in space to her efforts in recent years to stimulate young girls to stay with the study of science, engineering, and math, she was a model citizen. Sally contributed her keen intelligence to many key studies, ranging from the Challenger and Columbia accident investigations to examinations of alternatives paths for the nation in space.
Peter H. Diamandis, Chairman/CEO, X PRIZE
I remember clearly the signs at the Cape during STS-7..."RIDE SALLY RIDE AND ALL YOU GUYS CAN GO ALONG TOO"... All of us rode with Sally on that flight. Her passion and dedication to education and to inspiring women to become scientists and engineers will be sorely missed.
Ed Lu, former astronaut and B612 Foundation chairman and CEO
Sally contributed to humanity in two big ways, both as an astronaut/explorer, and through her work encouraging girls to get involved in science. She'll be missed.
Elliot Pulham, Space Foundation CEO
The space community, teachers and students around the world have lost a great friend and role model. Sally was more than a trailblazing astronaut and brilliant scientist. She was deeply concerned about the state of education in the United States, and worked tirelessly to reach students, especially at-risk young women, with programs filled with hope and inspiration -- to enable our next generation of explorers.
Whether on board a space shuttle, inside a corporate board room, or with students at one of her Sally Ride Science events, she was a motivational and inspiring leader. She was a friend to all explorers, and she will be deeply missed.
Roger Launius, Space History Curator at the Smithsonian's National Air & Space Museum
She was highly significant in a lot of ways. As the first American woman to fly in 1983, that's significant in and of itself. Beyond that, she was involved in both Columbia and Challenger accident investigations, and was critical to the recovery from both of those accidents.
Her report on leadership at NASA in the aftermath of Challenger was really significant. That's where she laid out, really for the first time, the idea that had been floating for a while — mission to planet Earth, which is now Earth science. It had not been a major part of NASA's efforts prior to that time, but has become incredibly significant since. She's an enormously significant voice for children's investigation in science and technology, and especially for girls. It's quite a tragedy we've lost her."
Maria Zuber, Lead Scientist for NASA's Grail Moon Mission
(Sally Ride Science operates Grail's MoonKam for students)
Sally was an icon in the history of space exploration. She realized the great honor associated with being the first American woman in space and used her notoriety to promote education. Her influence in inspiring students to pursue careers in science and technology is one of her many extraordinary achievements. In her role as an astronaut and as an educator Sally changed the lives of countless young people and that will be her legacy.
Scott Hubbard, Stanford University professor, B612 Foundation Program Architect and former NASA "Mars Czar"
Over the last 9 years I was fortunate to work with Sally on the Columbia Accident Board, as a sponsor for Sally Ride Science, and most recently as a reviewer of my book. Sally was kind-hearted, gracious, a strong role model for young women in science and a thoughtful scientist. I am profoundly grateful to have known her and had the opportunity to work with her over the years.
Lon Rains, Chairman, Coalition for Space Exploration
Today, the Coalition for Space Exploration is saddened to say goodbye to our dear friend and colleague Sally Ride - physicist, astronaut, educator and American hero. After her trailblazing career in space, Sally dedicated her life to the mission of opening the world of science to girls, with the Sally Ride Science Academy and Camps.
She was a role model, a mentor and one of our most effective champions for STEM education.
Our sorrow in her passing is only exceeded by our deep respect and gratitude for her contributions to our nation and our future.
In memoriam: 'Ride, Sally, Ride'
Alan Boyle - NBCNews.com's Cosmic Log
If Sally Ride could have flown in space without the hubbub over being the first American woman to do so, she'd have done it in a heartbeat. Celebrity wasn't her thing. The final frontier was.
That comes through loud and clear in Ride's own reminiscences of her selection as NASA's first female space traveler. She recalled getting a "little chat" from Chris Kraft, the head of NASA's Johnson Space Center, just to make sure "I knew what I was getting into before I agreed to be on the crew."
"But I was so dazzled just by the opportunity to be on the crew and go into space that I really don't remember very much of what he said," she said.
Ride had to deal with the full force of the media hoopla surrounding her history-making spaceflight in 1983. One questioner asked whether she'd wear a bra in space. "There is no sag in zero-G," she famously answered. (By some accounts, NASA research since then has led to the development of better sports bras.)
Eventually, Ride found it easier to avoid the celebrity spotlight. "I'm the sort of person who likes to be able to just walk into the supermarket and not be recognized," she told The Associated Press in 2003. "I can do that most of the time now. A lot of people recognize the name. Very few recognize my face. That's very good."
Now that Ride has passed away at the age of 61, after battling pancreatic cancer for 17 months, there's be another posthumous surge of celebrity.
Once again, there'll be chatter about Ride's illness, which she reportedly asked NASA not to publicize, as well as her personal relationships.
But for now, the focus should be squarely on her contribution to space exploration — as the woman who broke the space barrier, who helped investigate two of NASA's toughest tragedies, who helped shape America's space vision, and who fostered the next generation of explorers through such ventures as Sally Ride Science, EarthKAM and MoonKAM.
That's the legacy that comes through loud and clear in the tributes from the White House and NASA, as well as the tributes from these other luminaries:
Eileen Collins, NASA's first woman shuttle commander:
"I am surprised and saddened by the news of Sally Ride’s passing. She was such a wonderful role model and source of inspiration to me. People around the world still recognize her name as the first American woman in space, and she took that title seriously even after departing NASA. She mentored me several times during my astronaut career, leaving me with many cherished memories. She never sought media attention for herself, but rather focused on doing her normally outstanding job. Her Sally Ride Science programs have reached thousands of middle-school girls, giving them the confidence to stay focused on math and science, even when the mass media message was otherwise. She also played a notable role in both the Challenger and Columbia accident investigations. Sally left us too soon. Godspeed, Sally, you will be greatly missed."
Mitt Romney, Republican presidential candidate; former Massachusetts governor:
"Today, America lost one of its greatest pioneers. The first American woman in space, Sally Ride inspired millions of Americans with her determination to break the mold of her time. She was a profile in courage, and while she will be missed, her accomplishments will never be forgotten."
Bill Nye (the Science Guy), executive director, Planetary Society:
"Sally Ride changed the world. We are very sorry to hear of her recent death after a nearly two-year battle with cancer. Dr. Ride was an excellent astronaut, a remarkable educator, and a longtime Planetary Society friend and adviser. Her particular passion was to get girls excited about science. She did just that. Her Sally Ride Science programs, which include camps, academies, educator institutes and festivals, will carry her legacy into the future. I encourage everyone to take a moment over the next few days and honor Sally Ride by giving a young person a reminder that she or he could pursue a career in science and change the world just as Sally did. She will be missed."
Nancy Conrad, founder and chairman of the Conrad Foundation; widow of Apollo moonwalker Pete Conrad:
"The Conrad Foundation and our students and partners are saddened to hear of Sally Ride’s untimely death. Sally was a great physicist, astronaut, educator and American hero. She dedicated her life to bringing the world of science to girls with her Sally Ride Science Academy and Camps. She was a wonderful role model for young women and girls and will be sadly missed. We salute her contribution to our nation and to our future."
U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., chairman of the Senate Science and Space Subcommittee:
"Sally Ride was one of the great pioneers as the first American woman in space. The whole nation was with her when she launched, lifting her up on a chorus of 'Ride, Sally, Ride.'"
U.S. Rep. Ralph Hall, R-Texas, chairman, House Science, Space and Technology Committee:
"I am very saddened by the news that my friend Sally Ride, the first American female astronaut to fly in space, has passed away after a lengthy battle with cancer. Sally was an inspiration to all, and her historic flight into space showed aspiring young women that they too could be successful in fields such as physics and engineering that had historically been dominated by men. Generations to come will reflect on Sally as an individual who broke barriers, demonstrated brave leadership, and taught the world to think a little differently. Sally’s legacy will be reflected in all of the young girls she inspired to pursue careers in science and engineering."
Neil deGrasse Tyson, director, Hayden Planetarium:
"Space programs create unique portfolios of heroes — in life and in death. US Shuttle astronaut Sally Ride 1951-2012, RIP."
Doug King, president and CEO, Museum of Flight:
"We are saddened by the news of Sally Ride’s death and send our deepest condolences to her family. Many of us clearly remember in 1983, watching her board the space shuttle Challenger as she literally blazed a trail as the first woman in space. She touched all of our lives and in particular was an incredible role model for young women everywhere, demonstrating that a career as an astronaut could be reality. We have a great deal of respect for her accomplishments as an astronaut and an educator and her lifelong dedication to STEM (Science Technology Engineering Math). She will be missed."
Lon Rains, chairman, Coalition for Space Exploration:
"Today, the Coalition for Space Exploration is saddened to say goodbye to our dear friend and colleague Sally Ride — physicist, astronaut, educator and American hero. After her trailblazing career in space, Sally dedicated her life to the mission of opening the world of science to girls, with the Sally Ride Science Academy and Camps. She was a role model, a mentor and one of our most effective champions for STEM education. Our sorrow in her passing is only exceeded by our deep respect and gratitude for her contributions to our nation and our future."
Elliot Pulham, CEO, Space Foundation:
"The space community, teachers and students around the world have lost a great friend and role model. Sally was more than a trailblazing astronaut and brilliant scientist. She was deeply concerned about the state of education in the United States, and worked tirelessly to reach students, especially at-risk young women, with programs filled with hope and inspiration — to enable our next generation of explorers. Whether on board a space shuttle, inside a corporate board room, or with students at one of her Sally Ride Science events, she was a motivational and inspiring leader. She was a friend to all explorers, and she will be deeply missed."
Scott Parazynski, chairman, Challenger Center for Space Science Education:
"We are deeply saddened to hear of Sally Ride's passing. Her passion brought STEM education to the forefront and for that we will be forever grateful. She will continue to be a great source of inspiration for students around the globe. Our thoughts and prayers are with her family and loved ones."
President, Congress react to Sally Ride’s passing
SpacePolitics.com
On Monday, Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, passed away after a 17-month battle with pancreatic cancer. Her death, which came as a surprise to many, led to an outpouring of reaction, including from the White House and members of Congress.
“Michelle and I were deeply saddened to hear about the passing of Sally Ride,” President Obama said in a brief statement issued late Monday. “Sally’s life showed us that there are no limits to what we can achieve and I have no doubt that her legacy will endure for years to come. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Sally’s family and friends.”
“Dr. Sally Ride was a true American pioneer who sparked the imagination of a generation of women and girls,” said Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) in a statement. “I’ll never forget the day when as a Member of Congress I traveled to the Kennedy Space Center to watch the first American woman blast into space. On that day, Dr. Ride launched into the history books and broke down the barriers that said women weren’t good enough, smart enough or strong enough.”
“I have always greatly admired her spirit and perseverance in accomplishing her goals and I know her legacy will live on in the millions of girls and women she inspired,” said Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX). She adds that she interviewed Ride for her 2004 book American Heroines. In that interview, “Sally Ride noted that one of her favorite childhood memories was of advice given to her by her father after a particularly discouraging day at school. His advice was to ‘reach for the stars.’ And so she did.”
“She was inspiration to all of us, especially young women,” said Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX), ranking member of the House Science Committee. “Beyond her work at NASA, she provided distinguished service on a number of important national advisory commissions. At the same time, I believe one of her most lasting influences was through the work she did to interest our young girls in science and technology.”
Student Science Experiments Riding Japanese Rocket To Space Station
Clara Moskowitz - Space.com
Alien superbugs and space spiders are the subjects of two student-designed science experiments due to launch toward the International Space Station Friday aboard a robotic Japanese spacecraft.
The projects were chosen by the public as part of the YouTube Space Lab competition, which allowed students between the ages of 14 to 18 to submit videos describing their scientific visions. Two of the winners - Dorothy Chen and Sara Ma, both 16, of Troy, Mich. – were on hand at the Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan for the liftoff of their experiment Friday.
The experiments are aboard the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency's unmanned H-2 Transfer Vehicle-3 (HTV-3), nicknamed Kounotori 3 (Japanese for "White Stork 3"). The vehicle will deliver food, supplies and new scientific equipment to the six astronauts living and working on the orbiting laboratory.
Chen and Ma's experiment, entitled "Could alien superbugs cure disease on Earth?", follows on work showing that bacteria grown in weightlessness can be more infectious than Earth-bound varieties. The new project will send a strain of bacteria called Bacillus Subtilis into space to see if introducing different nutrients or compounds in the microgravity environment could block its growth.
"If the results show that fertilizers or phosphates are successful inhibitors of virulence then there can be more experimentation done on various pathogenic strains to see if phosphates can make them less harmful," the students said in their entry video. [6 Everyday Things That Turn Weird in Space]
The ultimate goal of the research is to learn whether insights from space bacteria could help cure diseases in humans.
"I'm excited just thinking about it, a part of us - something that Dorothy and I created from scratch - will be orbiting us high above the atmosphere," Chen said in a statement. "Watching our experiment launch into space to be conducted on the International Space Station will definitely be a surreal moment."
The other winning project, submitted by Amr Mohamed, 18, of Alexandria, Egypt, is entitled "Can you teach an old spider new tricks?" Mohamed's experiment will send zebra spiders into space to see if weightlessness will interfere with the animals' ability to jump on its prey. He hopes to learn more about these spiders' hunting methods by testing whether microgravity will foil their traditional hunting methods or whether the spiders will adapt.
"The idea of sending an experiment to space is the most exciting thing that I have ever heard in my life," Mohamed said in a YouTube video about the competition. "It feels great to represent all the Middle East, because Egypt's contribution to the field of space exploration has been minimal, so winning YouTube Space Lab will mean everything to me, to my family, and to people in the Middle East."
Once the projects are delivered to the space station, NASA astronaut Sunita Williams will perform the experiments according to the directions provided by the students. The results of the trials will be streamed live on YouTube this fall.
The winners of the competition were judged by more than 150,000 YouTube users worldwide voting on their favorite entrants. The champions were awarded Lenovo laptops, as well as a choice between the chance to watch their experiment fly aboard Kounotori 3 from Japan, or the opportunity to attend cosmonaut training in Star City, Russia. Ma and Chen chose to watch the launch, while Mohamed elected to experience some of the training cosmonauts go through.
The contest was sponsored by YouTube, Lenovo, and the Alexandria, Va.-based space tourism firm Space Adventures.
Atlas V changes for human spaceflight
Charles Black - Sen.com
NASA and United Launch Alliance (ULA) have been reviewing changes that will be needed to prepare the company's Atlas V rocket for human spaceflight.
Atlas V has a successful history of launching satellites and robotic spacecraft including missions for NASA. Last year it sent the Juno probe on its way to Jupiter and launched the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft which is due to arrive at Mars shortly.
But the rocket is being designed to carry humans into space - and must therefore meet with more stringent safety standards than those required for unmanned launches. To assess the required modifications, engineers from ULA have been working closely with NASA technical experts and commercial crew partners, such as Boeing and Sierra Nevada Corporation.
Dr George Sowers, ULA's VP for human launch services, explained: "The systems requirements review was the result of an extensive effort with NASA and our commercial spacecraft partners to determine what capabilities the Atlas V already meets and to define what we need to do from here to certify the rocket for human spaceflight. We continue to receive valuable insight from NASA's human spaceflight experts as we move toward the certification of Atlas V for human spaceflight."
Following the review, ULA will proceed to detailed design and development to make the Atlas V ready to carry people.
The key modifications needed to meet NASA's Human Spaceflight Certification include the upper stage rocket needing two engines rather than the single engine currently used. The onboard flight computers will also need to be programmed to provider greater control of the flightpath into orbit. Sensors will be added to the rocket to detect emergency situations for the crew and the launch pad will be modified to allow crew to board the spacecraft.
Ed Mango, the Commercial Crew Program manager, commenting on the review, said: "Our partnership with ULA during this round of development has really been focused on understanding the core design of the launch vehicle. In these reviews we were able to see how ULA plans to modify the vehicle for human spaceflight."
ULA is one of several companies working with NASA to develop crew transportation under the Commercial Crew Development (CCDev2) Program. ULA has an unfunded Space Act Agreement which sees the company and NASA share knowledge and technical expertise.
Boeing's Crew Space Transportation CST-100 and Sierra Nevada Corporation's Dream Chaser - which are also being developed with assistance from NASA's CCDev2 Prgoram - will be launched atop the Atlas V rocket (see artist's illustration, left). Blue Origin's space vehicle may also be launched by the Atlas V.
Whilst NASA is looking to business to provide crew and cargo services to Low Earth Orbit and the International Space Station, the space agency is developing its own spacecraft, Orion, for deep space missions. Orion would launch atop of NASA's next big rocket, Space Launch System.
ULA, formed in 2006, is a 50:50 joint venture between aerospace giants Lockheed Martin and The Boeing Company.
New aerospace firm scoping out Space Coast
XCOR may build rocket engines, more here - and spur 152 jobs
Patrick Peterson - Florida Today
A California space exploration company lays out the possibility of locating in Brevard County today.
XCOR Aerospace Inc., known until now as Project Planet as the company made its way through economic development channels in Florida, will reveal possible plans for building rocket engines and a suborbital spacecraft on the Space Coast in an appearance before the Brevard County Commission.
The commission is scheduled to approve matching funds for a nearly $1 million state grant to lure the company.
In an interview, XCOR Chief Operating Officer Andrew Nelson said the company could create 152 jobs paying an average wage of $60,833.
Commissioners are expected to approve $182,000 in matching funds for the state grant. The county appropriation, roughly 20 percent of the grant, appears on the commission’s “consent agenda,” which is usually approved without discussion.
“It’s pay for performance. It’s supporting a company that brings jobs,” Rob Salonen, business development director for the Economic Development Commission of Florida’s Space Coast, said Monday. “I think it sends another signal that the Space Coast is open for commercial space.”
XCOR is developing an line of reusable rocket engines and has designed a suborbital aircraft that could ferry space tourists from Kennedy Space Center.
“When it comes to commercial space (travel), it’s going to be a great operation base for anyone who flies from there,” said Nelson. “The Space Coast has one of the premier work forces when it comes to aerospace and they certainly have one of the premier launch sites.”
XCOR is based in Mojave, Calif. Its president, Jeff Greason, has headed up the development of 11 different rocket engines and, earlier in his career, performed work that became the basis for the Pentium processor.
XCOR’s interest in locating on the Space Coast is part of a renewed interest in space exploration after the end of the space shuttle program last July. Rocket Crafters, a Utah company, last week announced an effort to develop and fly a suborbital craft from Titusville that could employ hundreds someday.
Nelson said he has a brief presentation with “a few slides” to show commissioners about how the company would operate in Brevard.
“We’re still in an evaluative state,” Nelson said. “We want to meet and make sure we have community support.”
The company recently announced it would establish a research and development site in Texas. It is considering Brevard as a site for other manufacturing or operations because it wants to separate operations and manufacturing from research and development sites.
“We’re evaluating places to put manufacturing facilities and places to put operational sites,” Nelson said.
The company is also reportedly considering sites in other states, including New Mexico, Texas and Virginia.
XCOR’s suborbital aircraft, called LYNX, is the size of a small business jet. It might make a test flight before the end of the year, but it will be longer before it makes suborbital trips.
XCOR has designed and flown several rocket-powered experimental aircraft. It is developing a commercial rocket engine to replace the upper stage engines on United Launch Alliance’s Atlas 5 and Delta 4 rockets.
“We have a couple of different business streams,” Nelson said.
END
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