Sally Ride and the Shuttle Missions

Sally Ride and the Shuttle Missions — page 5

Sally Ride and the Shuttle Missions — page 6 — The mission patch on Sally Ride’s shirt commemorated her historic flight in Challenger

Sally Ride and the Shuttle Missions — page 7 — A TALENTED GIRL Sally Ride was born in Los Angeles California on May 26 1951 She grew up to be a bright and determined teenager who was gifted at math and science She was also a natural athlete and became an outstanding tennis player A LANDMARK FOR WOMEN When Sally was just 12 in 1963 the very first woman went into space She wasn’t American but Russian Her name was Valentina Tereshkova and she was a factory worker whose only experience of flying was with her local parachuting club Tereshkova was one of several women selected to train as cosmonauts the Russian name for astronauts After only 15 months of training she was chosen to be the first woman in space On June 16 1963 she took off aboard the spacecraft Vostok 6 After nearly three days and 48 orbits of Earth she parachuted safely back to land The Space Race After World War II ended in 1945 the United States and Russia competed in many areas including the exploration of space This struggle became known as the Space Race The Russians were first to

Sally Ride and the Shuttle Missions — page 8 — launch a satellite in 1957 and to launch a man into space in 1961 But the United States was the first to land people on the Moon in 1969 FIRST TO THE MOON Like many young people in the 1960s Ride was thrilled by the race into space Later she watched the live TV footage of the first Moon landing in 1969 But she had no dreams of going into space herself because astronauts were mostly men I just assumed there would never be a place for women she said Valentina Tereshkova was 26 years old when she became the first woman in space

7

PAGE 7 OF 83

The only kids' eBook subscription service that offers thousands of high-quality books from well known publishers like HarperCollins, National Geographic and others.

JavaScript Required

Whoops! We're sorry but Epic doesn't work properly without JavaScript enabled. Check your web browser's settings to make sure it's enabled.