Ride…
I know where I was 40 years ago today. Can you say the same thing for yourself?
Wanna know where? I was at a beach along Florida’s Atlantic coastline watching NASA’s Space Shuttle Challenger STS-7 mission launch into space carrying with it America’s first female astronaut in space, America’s youngest astronaut in space at the time, and the world’s first gay astronaut in space (although this latter fact didn’t come to light until after her death in 2012).
That trailblazer? Sally K. Ride.
Three years later, that same shuttle exploded and Dr. Ride joined the internal team investigating the cause of the mishap. She reportedly served as a conduit for the whistleblower who blew the top off the faulty o-ring and company responsible for it. She did this to protect the engineer who knew the truth. She’d had her career and was willing to risk it all to protect a colleague while still doing the right thing.
Sally Ride is an amazing and fascinating woman whom Nathan also came to know and respect via a report he researched in second grade.
Think you know Sally Ride? Just give her Wikipedia page a read. I’m ready to guarantee you find some new fact you never knew.
Hard to believe that was 40 years ago. What an amazing experience we had! We were very lucky to be a part of that event.
Posted by: Suzanne Apgar | Monday, 19 June 2023 at 10:22 AM