The first American woman in space is Sally Ride, on STS – 7 mission with Challenger spacecraft, on June 18, 1983.
At 32 years old, she was also the youngest American in space then with four male crew mates. They spent seven days in the mission.
Sally Ride traveled again to space in 1984 on STS- 41 – G mission.
She was educated in Stanford University where she got a first degree in Physics in 1973, a Master’s in 1975 and a doctorate in 1978.
Sally Ride was born 26 May, 1951 and died of pancreatic cancer on 23 July, 2012 aged 61.
She was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama in 2013.
The Russians had a slight edge in the early space race and she was the third woman in space after cosmonauts Valentina Tereshkova in 1963 and Svetlana Savitskaya in 1982.
