Sally Ride

(http://womenshistory.about.com/od/aviationspace/ig/ Sally-Ride-Picture-Gallery/Astronaut-Candidate-Sally-Ride.htm)

My hero is Sally Ride. She was the first woman to go to space. She was born in California on May 26, 1951. She is my hero because she showed everyone that you can do whatever you want if you try hard to get to it. She also proved to everyone that a woman can do anything that a man can.

Sally had loved tennis and was a nationally ranked tennis player. She had started playing at the age of 10 years old. But, she had decided to go with science over tennis. Sally was one of six women trainees chosen from thirty-five. In 1983 she became the first woman astronaut, and also became a part of the space shuttle’s seventh mission.

Sally Ride was in training for a third shuttle mission when she had heard that the space shuttle Challenger exploded with the crew on it in 1986. They made her president of this investigation to find out what had happened after training was suspended.

Later, though, she decided to retire in 1987 and go and become a Science Fellow at the Center for International Security at Stanford. Two years later, she was named Professor of Physics at the University of California, San Diego. Then, in June 1999 she became part of a website about the space industry, and in September 1999 she became president of the company. She stayed in that position until a year later in September 2000.

Sally Ride has won very many medals. She has won things such as the Women’s Research and Education Institute’s American Woman Award and the National Space Flight medal. She has also written a few children’s books, such as To Space and Back, Voyager: An Adventure to the Edge of the Solar System, and Exploring our Solar System.

Sally Ride is my hero because she has showed everyone that a woman can do everything that a man can do. She also proved that you can do anything that you want to do if you put your mind to it. It doesn’t matter what you want to do, as long as you work hard to achieve it.