by Lynn Sherr
Thanks also to Sally’s old friends and loves, especially John Tompkins, Molly Tyson, Bill Colson and Steve Hawley, for frankness and sensitivity. Susan Okie was exceptionally generous with early memories and journalistic notes. Janet Mennie Schroeder provided vital letters. Billie Jean King took time from her very busy life to share key recollections. Kay Loveland lent her expertise as a psychologist and as a confidant during Tam and Sally’s relationship.
At NASA, I am grateful for the openness of so many of Sally’s friends and onetime colleagues. Special thanks for enduring repeated interrogations to Bob Crippen, Rick Hauck, George Abbey, Carolyn Huntoon, Rhea Seddon, Anna Fisher, Kathryn Sullivan, Duane Ross, Ellen Baker and Marsha Ivins. And again, to Steve Hawley. Alan Ladwig’s long and unique relationship with Sally was matched only by his candor and enthusiasm in retelling the stories. Jennifer Ross-Nazzal at NASA’s JSC Oral History Project helped guide me through a precious set of records. Thanks to Joe Allen for the connection. My old friends Dick Truly and Gene Cernan were also more than accommodating. In addition: Jody Russell from the JSC Media Resource Center for patiently and consistently digging up images; Margaret Weitekamp and Valerie Neal at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum for a personal tour and historical perspective; and Air Force General (Ret.) Don Kutyna for Sally’s role during the Rogers Commission.
Sally’s colleagues from Sally Ride Science have provided critical insights into her commitment to the next generation. In particular: SRS cofounders Karen Flammer (whose parsing of Sally’s physics notes and lectures also helped me understand what I managed to avoid in college) and Terry McEntee, a sane and solid presence who knew her boss-turned-friend like no other. Maria Zuber walked me through her close collaboration with Sally during MoonKAM and other projects.
From her high school classmates to her physics students to her oncologists, everyone I interviewed contributed pieces to complete the picture of Sally’s life. Institutional help came from the UCSD Alumni Office (Raymond Hardie), Swarthmore College Communications Office (Celina De Leon), Stanford University News Service (Regina Kammer).
Esther Newberg is the very best kind of literary agent and friend: she is, simply, always there. At Simon & Schuster, I am privileged to have worked with Alice Mayhew, whose sense of history immediately led her to grasp the importance of getting Sally’s life between covers. Thanks to the entire team from Jonathan Karp to Jonathan Cox, Jackie Seow, Joy O’Meara, Eric Rayman and Julia Prosser.
The usual set of pals put me up and/or put up with me during the writing and kept the secrets, notably: Ellen Goodman, Michele Lee, Susan and Andy Hilford, Lois Dubin, Nola Safro.
Finally, posthumous thanks to my friend Sally Ride, whose can-do spirit and nonstop feminism took us along with her in June 1983, making our own impossible dreams seem more likely. She, and we, deserved more time.
1. PFC Dale Ride. He never talked about his World War II service with the Seventh Army in France and Germany, but was riveted to the TV show Combat!, which he watched regularly with his daughters.
2. Joyce and Dale Ride, wedding day, January 29, 1949.
3. Sally, age one, 1952.
4. Proud papa with Sally (left) and baby Bear, probably 1954.
5. Family portrait: Sally (left), Dale, Bear, Joyce, probably 1955.
6. Bear (left) and Sally in the Norwegian sweaters of their heritage, probably 1956.
7. Sally (left) and Bear in even itchier Norwegian outfits at the church of their English ancestors, 1961.
8. Sally in junior high school, the same age as the girls her company would later target.
9. Tsigane, the family collie. Sally kept a similar photo in her wallet for so many years, its edges were frayed.
10. Sally (stretched out in foreground) with the select group of Westlake classmates privileged to study at UCLA during their senior year.
11. With high school best friend Sue Okie (left) at Yosemite, 1969.
12. Sally (“The Thinker”) from her Westlake senior yearbook, 1968.
13. Bear (left), Alice Marble, and Sally, at Deauville Country Club in Tarzana, 1961. Even at age ten, Sally kept her distance from the coach she never liked.
14. Swarthmore tennis champ, 1969.
15. The famous match: Dick Peters (left), Billie Jean King (fresh from winning Wimbledon), Sally (age twenty-one) and Dennis Van der Meer, at TennisAmerica, Lake Tahoe, 1972. Ball boy at far left is Martin Luther King III.
16. At Stanford, 1970s. As the teaching assistant, Sally had her students help build the mount for the telescope at the Stanford Observatory.
17. With Molly Tyson (left), 1973. “We just wanted to spend time together,” Molly says.
18. Passing by The Dish in the Stanford foothills after her selection as an astronaut candidate, 1978. “They wanted me to go out running,” she said of the media, “so I went out and ran.”
19. With her parents on graduation day at Stanford: June 1973.
20. With Bill Colson, Stanford physics lab, 1978.
21. Celebrating the announcement in her Stanford office, 1978.
22. Two sisters, two professions, 1978. Bear (right) became a minister several months after Sally was accepted by NASA. One of them, joked their mother, would get to heaven.
23. NASA’s first six women selected as astronaut candidates (left to right): Sally, Shannon Lucid, Kathy Sullivan, Rhea Seddon, Anna Fisher, Judy Resnik, during a break from water survival training, Homestead Air Force Base, Florida, 1978.
24. After Sally’s turn at the end of a tow line in the Florida waters in 1978, she joked, “If I’m supposed to be smart, what am I doing here?”
25. Sally’s parachute being towed through the air by a pickup truck during training at Vance Air Force Base, Oklahoma, 1978.
26. Logging her flying time on a T-38—fifteen hours a month— Ellington Air Force Base, Houston, 1982.
27. Poised for takeoff in the back seat of a T-38 (Bob Crippen was up front) departing from Houston for Florida, June 16, 1983.
28. The Solar Eclipse team (left to right): Hoot Gibson, Dick Scobee, Pinky Nelson, Steve Hawley, Sally, Mike Coats, Malmstrom Air Force Base, Great Falls, Montana, February 1979. At the time, Sally was dating Hoot.
29. Somewhere over Montana in the shadow of the eclipse, 1979.
30. With her husband, Steve Hawley, at Kennedy Space Center, Florida, August 26, 1984, four days before Steve’s first flight (STS-41D).
31. Rehearsing for her stint as CapCom for STS-2 at Mission Control, Houston. Astronaut James Buchli is to Sally’s right, July 1981.
32. My interview with Sally before her first flight, Johnson Space Center, Houston, May 1983. “I do feel that there’s some pressure for me not to mess up,” she told me.
33. Mission patch for STS-7. Notice the 7, a preview of the real thing. And the biological symbol for woman, another NASA first.
34. Crew walkout with John Fabian and Norm Thagard, just after 5 a.m., June 18, 1983. George Abbey, who accompanied every crew to the pad, is directly behind them.
35. Liftoff, STS-7, 7:33 a.m., June 18, 1983. “That was definitely an E ticket,” Sally told ground controllers in Houston.
36. Another perspective from astronaut John Young in the Shuttle Training Aircraft. Florida’s Atlantic coastline is visible in the background. Eight minutes later, the crew would be in orbit.
37. Dale Ride, watching his firstborn leave Earth and enter the history books.
38. On Challenger’s flight deck, hovering over the cockpit seats, June 25, 1983. “My favorite thing about space was being weightless,” Sally said.
39. Communicating with ground controllers, flight day four, June 21, 1983.
40. Self-portrait of the largest shuttle crew to date (left to right): Norm Thagard, Bob Crippen, Rick Hauck, Sally, John Fabian, June 21, 1983. Crip said approvingly that they were known as “Sally Ride and the others.”
41. The world’s first view of the shuttle while orbiting, June 22, 1983. Sally and John Fabian worked ha
rd to configure the arm for this iconic image of Challenger from the SPAS satellite.
42. Challenger lands at Edwards Air Force Base, June 24, 1983. In a phone call to the crew, President Reagan told Sally, “Somebody said that ‘sometimes the best man for a job was a woman.’ … You were there because you were the best person for the job.”
43. With two of her heroes: Billie Jean King (left) and Gloria Steinem at a postflight reception in New York hosted by Girls Club of America, August 1983.
44. With Grundgetta of Sesame Street after Sally taped an appearance on the TV show in New York, January 1984. “A,” Sally tells young viewers. “Astronaut.”
45. Sally (left) signing her autograph at the secret meeting with Svetlana Savitskaya (second from right). Tamas Gombosi, translator and arranger, is at far right. Hungarian cosmonaut Bertalan Farkas sits next to Sally at his apartment in Budapest, October 1983.
46. Kathy Sullivan (left) and Sally became the first two women to fly in space together, during STS-41G in October 1984. The floating springs, clips, clamps and bungee cord belong to one of the shuttle’s sleeping restraints.
47. Inauguration, Astronaut Hall of Fame, Kennedy Space Center, June 2003. Sally joins NASA legends (left to right) John Glenn, Gordon Cooper, Jim Lovell, Buzz Aldrin, Walt Cunningham and Bob Crippen (at podium).
48. Examining a cross section of the solid rocket booster material with Secretary of State William P. Rogers, chairman of the presidential commission investigating the space shuttle Challenger accident, at hearings in Washington, DC, February 11, 1986.
49. Behind the scenes at the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB), March 2003, with NASA liaison officer Frank Buzzard (left) and CAIB chair Hal Gehman. “Sally wanted something from NASA and Frank and I were working out how to satisfy her inquiry,” Gehman recalls. “And Sally was leaning over my shoulder to make sure I got it right.” An image of the lost crew hangs on the wall.
50. Meeting the emir of Bahrain at a White House State Dinner with President and Mrs. Reagan, July 19, 1983. Sally and Crip brought the president some of his jelly beans that had flown with them on the shuttle.
51. Greeting President Obama at the White House, prior to launch of the “Educate to Innovate” Campaign for Excellence in Science, Technology, Engineering & Math, November 23, 2009. Craig Barrett stands to Sally’s left, along with former Sesame Workshop CEO Gary Knell.
52. CEO, Sally Ride Science, La Jolla, 2010.
53. Surrounded by fans at an SRS Festival, 2006.
54. Delivering the SRS Festival keynote at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley, September 2007.
55. On July 22, 2003, during a twenty-fifth anniversary celebration of Sally’s first flight, at Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, third grader Grace Powers read her book report on Sally to rousing cheers.
56. Tam O’Shaughnessy answering questions at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, May 17, 2013, during a panel preceding the national tribute to Sally in Washington, DC. “She really cared,” she told the audience, “about taking care of our air, our oceans, our world.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
© STEVE FENN, ABC NEWS
An award-winning ABC-TV News correspondent for more than thirty years, specializing in politics, social change and investigative reports, Lynn Sherr also anchored and reported on NASA’s space shuttle program from its inception through the Challenger explosion. Her friendship with Sally Ride lasted long beyond that. Sherr was one of forty semifinalists in NASA’s Journalist-in-Space competition, which was ultimately disbanded. Today she lives in New York and freelances on a variety of platforms. Among her bestselling books: SWIM: Why We Love the Water; Outside the Box: A Memoir; America the Beautiful: The Stirring True Story Behind Our Nation’s Favorite Song; Tall Blondes: A Book About Giraffes; and Failure Is Impossible: Susan B. Anthony in Her Own Words. You can contact her at [email protected] or follow her on Twitter @LynnSherr.
MEET THE AUTHORS, WATCH VIDEOS AND MORE AT
SimonandSchuster.com
authors.simonandschuster.com/LynnSherr
ALSO BY LYNN SHERR
Swim: Why We Love the Water
Outside the Box: A Memoir
Peter Jennings: A Reporter’s Life (with Kate Darnton and Kayce Freed Jennings)
America the Beautiful: The Stirring True Story Behind Our Nation’s Favorite Song
Tall Blondes: A Book About Giraffes
Failure Is Impossible: Susan B. Anthony in Her Own Words
Susan B. Anthony Slept Here: A Guide to American Women’s Landmarks (with Jurate Kazickas)
SOURCES
INTERVIEWS (CONDUCTED JULY 2012–AUGUST 2013)
George Abbey, Barbara Adachi, David Anton, Norman Augustine, Wanda Austin, Susie Bachtel, Mike Baine, Ellen Baker, Barbara Barrett, Craig Barrett, Lindsay Beaven, Cathy Benko, Dori Berinstein, Guy Bluford, David Borhman, Diane Bowen, Andrew Bridges, Ed Buckbee, Adam Burgasser, Rain Burns, Dixon Butler, Michael Cassutt, Andrew Chaikin, Mary Cleave, Chelsea Clinton, Michael Coats, Kenneth Cohen, Cady Coleman, Eileen Collins, Bill Colson, Craig Covault, Ed Crawley, Bob Crippen, Sherri Davis, Alphonso Diaz, Angela Phillips Diaz, Toni DiMartino-Stebich, Sid Drell, Tracy Caldwell Dyson, Judith Estrin, John Fabian, Paul Fanta, Anna Fisher, Karen Flammer, Francis French, Robert Frosch, Lori Garver, James Garvin, Harold W. Gehman Jr., Jack Gibbons, Robert “Hoot” Gibson, Don Gips, Tamas Gombosi, Al Gore, Ann Gould, Dick Gould, Jan Graham, Whitney Grant, Gerry Griffin, Todd Halvorson, Fred Hargadon, Deborah Schneider Harrington, Hugh Harris, Myra Hart, Rick Hauck, Steve Hawley, Frances Hellman, Dave Hilmers, John Holdren, Harry Holloway, Paul Hoversten, Scott Hubbard, Frank Hughes, Carolyn Huntoon, Marsha Ivins, Harriett Jenkins, Jim Jensen, Dana Kadison, Billie Jean King, Jim Kohlenberger, Don Kutyna, Alan Ladwig, Wendy Lawrence, Shelly Lazarus, Ann Lebedeff, David Leestma, Paula Levin, George Lewis, John Logsdon, Alann Lopes, Alan Lovelace, Kay Loveland, Jim Lovell, Andrew Lowy, Allan McDonald, Maleah Grover McKay, Shirley Malcom, Lauren Martin, Lynn Martin, Jon McBride, Dan McCleese, Terry McEntee, Lucy McFadden, Pamela Melroy, James Middleton, Barbara Mikulski, Debbie Millman, Don Mizell, Quentin Mommaerts, Brian Muirhead, Valerie Neal, George “Pinky” Nelson, Grenn Nemhauser, Nichelle Nichols, John Niehoff, Teri Niehoff, Rick Nygren, Bryan O’Connor, James Oberg, Miles O’Brien, Ellen Ochoa, Susan Okie, Marilyn Ortiz, Tam O’Shaughnessy, Carolyn Porco, William Powers, Lisa Reed, Condoleezza Rice, Joanna Rice, Bear Ride, Joyce Ride, Steve Riley, Bob Rose, Duane Ross, Jennifer Ross-Nazal, Kate Rubins, Emily Sachar, Genesis Santos, Patricia Santy, Janet Mennie Schroeder, Whit Scott, Rhea Seddon, Asif Siddiqi, Richard Somerville, Gloria Steinem, Nicolle Stott, Kathryn Sullivan, Jane Swift, Richard Teets, Norman Thagard, John Tompkins, John Townsend, Richard Truly, Molly Tyson, Diane Vaughan, Jesco von Puttkamer, Edina Weinstein, Brenda Wilson, Stephanie Wilson, Maria Zuber.
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Most of the print, video, audio and electronic sources I accessed are cited in the Notes, by chapter. Those listed here were consulted more often.
BOOKS AND PUBLISHED REPORTS
Allen, Joseph P. Entering Space: An Astronaut’s Odyssey. New York: Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 1984.
Atkinson, Joseph D. Jr., and Jay M. Shafritz. The Real Stuff: A History of NASA’s Astronaut Recruitment Program. Foreword by Alan B. Shepard and Guion S. Bluford Jr. New York: Praeger Publishers (Praeger Scientific Studies/Praeger Scientific), 1985.
Cernan, Eugene, with Don Davis. The Last Man on the Moon: Astronaut Eugene Cernan and America’s Race in Space. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 2000.
Cooper, Henry S. F. Jr., Before Liftoff: The Making of a Space Shuttle Crew. Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987.
Foster, Amy E. Integrating Women into the Astronaut Corps: Politics and Logistics at NASA, 1972–2004. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011.
Hansen, James R. First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005.
H
enley, John A., editor. Contributors: William David Lindsay Ride, Annabel Anderson, Maureen McMahon Clinton. The Ride Connexion. Melbourne: Javelin Books Pty Limited, 2008.
Kevles, Bettyann Holtzmann. Almost Heaven: The Story of Women in Space. Cambridge, Mass., London, England: MIT Press. 2006.
McDougall, Walter A. The Heavens and the Earth. New York: Basic Books, 1985.
Mullane, Mike. Riding Rockets: The Outrageous Tales of a Space Shuttle Astronaut. New York: Scribner, 2006.
Ride, Sally K. Leadership and America’s Future in Space: A Report to the Administrator (“The Ride Report”). Published by NASA, August 1987.
Ride, Sally, with Susan Okie. To Space & Back. New York: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Books, 1986.
Ride, Sally, and Tam O’Shaughnessy. Exploring Our Solar System. New York: Crown Publishers, 2003.
———. Mission Planet Earth. New York: Flash Point, Roaring Book Press, 2009.
———. Mission Save the Planet. New York: Flash Point, Roaring Book Press, 2009.
———. The Mystery of Mars. New York: Crown Publishers, 2009.
———. The Third Planet: Exploring the Earth from Space. New York: Crown Publishers, 1994.
———. Voyager: An Adventure to the Edge of the Solar System. New York: Crown Publishers,1992.