Sally Ride, the first U.S. woman in space, died of pancreatic cancer after a 17-month battle on Monday, at age 61. For anyone in my generation, the name “Sally Ride” evokes more than just the song “Mustang Sally,” which followed her throughout her life. It is a direct line in to our elementary and middle school cafeteria gatherings to watch Space Shuttle launches all together on TV — right before science got ‘hard’ and stopped being ‘fun’ for too many kids.
That’s a school age that Ride was particularly concerned about, in terms of when and why girls still – even in the 21st century – get turned off from, pressured out of, or embarrassed by their interest in science.
That was the one thing Ride was passionate enough about to actually use her name for, after her astronaut days were over: encouraging girls to follow their passion in science. In that capacity, you could say she expressed facets of both her Cancer ascendant and her Aquarius Moon: she was a kind of techno-mom to all girls interested in science and space. We’ll come back to her Moon — as well as more of her astrology — in a moment. First, a little sketch of Ride’s life.
Sally Ride was born in Los Angeles, CA on May 26, 1951. Her early Gemini Sun is closely conjunct Mars, and it showed: as a kid she was fiercely athletic. Her parents pushed her into tennis lessons so she’d stop playing street football, and she got so good that none less than Billie Jean King suggested she turn pro. Ride’s keen intellect and interest in science were clear early on, too – and she chose college over pro tennis.
Eventually ending up at Stanford, Ride went on to double major in physics and English (specializing in Shakespeare) for her BA, and then earned a Master’s and a PhD in physics. Around the time she was finishing at Stanford, she read a NASA recruitment ad, saw that they were basically looking for her, and made the cut out of 8,000 applicants.
At NASA, Ride trained in the usual stuff – like flying jet planes and jumping out of them. She also switched from physics to engineering, helping to develop a robotic arm for the shuttle. In fact, she was chosen for her first mission in 1983, aboard STS-7, partly due to her expertise with the device.