If you think battling evil in the bowels of a defunct space freighter is hard, try being the closeted, often-patronized poster child for womankind’s capacity to compete in a notoriously male-dominated field.
Sally Ride, the first American female astronaut, died yesterday after an extended battle with pancreatic cancer. Ride rode the Space Shuttle Challenger as it launched from the Kennedy Space Center, plus spent 147-hours in space that first flight.
But it wasn’t easy. Women still weren’t taken seriously as scientists, plus certainly not as astronauts. The New York Times describes some of the challenges Ride faced:
The CBS News reporter Diane Sawyer asked her to demonstrate a newly installed privacy curtain around the shuttle’s toilet. On “The Tonight Show,” Johnny Carson joked that the shuttle flight would be delayed because Dr. Ride had to find a purse to match her shoes.
At a NASA news conference, Dr. Ride said: “It’s too bad this is such a big deal. It’s too bad our society isn’t further along.” And if being one of the first female astronauts wasn’t enough of a challenge, Ride had her own personal battle as well, one that wasn’t revealed until her obituary came out yesterday. The Huffington Post reports:
In what is perhaps a stellar example of the new trend in coming out quietly, Sally Ride, the first American woman to rocket into outer space, came out as a lesbian in her obituary, a day after her tragic death due to pancreatic cancer. She now makes history not only as the first American woman in space, aboard the space shuttle Challenger, but as the first openly gay person to fly in space as well.
The Smithsonian featured Ride as a part of their “35 Who Made a Difference” series. Ride inspired a whole generation of young women to pursue careers in science.