

Sally Ride, First American Woman In Space, Is Dead - cbsmith
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012/07/23/157250870/sally-ride-first-american-woman-in-space-is-dead

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jgrahamc
RIP Sally Ride. She was a personal inspiration as a child because I saw a
woman going into space as an indication of the opening up of space to 'normal'
people. She was also a scientist and not a military person.

~~~
lotharbot
> _"I saw a woman going into space as an indication of the opening up of space
> to 'normal' people."_

This is one area where the Soviets had us beat:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentina_Tereshkova>

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Heinleinian
Um, no. Valentina was the first woman in space in 1963. However, the Russians
didn't fly another woman in space for the next 20 years, not until we flew
Sally Ride. We've flown a female astronaut almost every year since, they've
flown one. The full count is: US, 45 female astronauts, Russia/SU: 3.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_female_astronauts>

To this day the Russians still have a superstition that flying with a woman is
bad luck, and many of them refuse to fly with one.

~~~
lotharbot
thus, "had" us beat rather than "have" us beat.

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kadjar
Sally Ride comes out as a lesbian in her obituary:
[http://www.buzzfeed.com/chrisgeidner/first-female-us-
astrona...](http://www.buzzfeed.com/chrisgeidner/first-female-us-astronaut-
sally-ride-comes-out)

