Sally Ride, First US Woman in Space Has Died

[Flagg]

Just breaking now. Will post the article when available. According to nbcnews.com it's from pancreatic cancer.

[LadyTevar]

First American woman in space, Sally Ride, dies at 61
Former astronaut loses 17-month battle against cancer; hailed as role model

The first American woman to go into space, Sally Ride, died Monday after a 17-month battle against pancreatic cancer, her company said.
Ride made history in 1983 as a crew member on the space shuttle Challenger, breaking the gender barrier for U.S. spaceflight. Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space in 1963, but it took another 20 years for NASA to follow suit.
Word of Ride's death came in an announcement from Sally Ride Science, the educational venture she founded after leaving NASA.

President Barack Obama said he and his wife, Michelle, were "deeply saddened" by the news.
"As the first American woman to travel into space, Sally was a national hero and a powerful role model," Obama said in a White House statement. "She inspired generations of young girls to reach for the stars, and later fought tirelessly to help them get there by advocating for a greater focus on science and math in our schools. Sally’s life showed us that there are no limits to what we can achieve, and I have no doubt that her legacy will endure for years to come."

NASA's current leaders issued tributes as well.
"Sally Ride broke barriers with grace and professionalism — and literally changed the face of America's space program," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said. "The nation has lost one of its finest leaders, teachers and explorers. Our thoughts and prayers are with Sally's family and the many she inspired. She will be missed, but her star will always shine brightly."
NASA's deputy administrator, Lori Garver, said Ride "was a personal and professional role model to me and thousands of women around the world."
"Her spirit and determination will continue to be an inspiration for women everywhere," Garver said.

Ride made a second space shuttle flight in 1984, also aboard Challenger, and left the space agency in 1987. She served for years as a physics professor and director of the California Space Institute. In 2001, she founded Sally Ride Science, which is aimed at promoting math and science for girls.

She served as a member of the independent board that investigated the 2003 loss of the shuttle Columbia and its crew, as well as the commission that laid out policy options for the Obama administration in 2009. That panel's conclusions led the White House to cancel a plan to send astronauts back to the moon, known as the Constellation program, and instead set the nation's sights on exploring near-Earth asteroids, leading eventually to missions to Mars.

When the commission completed its report, Ride bristled over the limitations that NASA's exploration efforts faced. "This budget is just simply not friendly to exploration," she said. "It's very difficult to find an exploration scenario that actually fits within this very restrictive budget guidance that we've been given."

The announcement of Ride's death noted that she is survived by her partner of 27 years, Tam O'Shaughnessy, who is the chief operating officer and executive vice president for content at Sally Ride Science. Other survivors include her mother, Joyce; her sister, Bear; her niece, Caitlin; and her nephew, Whitney. Ride was married to fellow astronaut Steven Hawley in 1982, but they divorced in 1987 with no children.

[LadyTevar]

[Sidewinder]

Present... arms! (Salutes.)

[Alyrium Denryle]

A trend I have noticed. The absolute best among our species seem to die young. You will be missed Dr. Ride. May future generations of humanity exploring the cosmos stand upon your shoulders and see for you. You were among the best of us, and the entire species will feel your loss.

[Col. Crackpot]

Ride Sally Ride...

[Skylon]

A tragedy. I am also noting in the obits she had a female partner of 27 years. Does this make her the first gay astronaut (albeit closeted when she flew as she was married to a male astronaut)?

[Broomstick]

Either that, or she's bisexual.

I'd be a little surprised if she was the first, but it's possible.

[fgalkin]

A trend I have noticed. The absolute best among our species seem to die young. You will be missed Dr. Ride. May future generations of humanity exploring the cosmos stand upon your shoulders and see for you. You were among the best of us, and the entire species will feel your loss.

Getting to the very top of a field takes its toll, I suppose. I remember a lot of the Soviet scientists and aviation engineers died in their 50s and 60s.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

[Sidewinder]

A tragedy. I am also noting in the obits she had a female partner of 27 years. Does this make her the first gay astronaut (albeit closeted when she flew as she was married to a male astronaut)?

Typing "Sally Ride sexual orientation" into a search engine, brings up several websites that claim she's a lesbian.

[Alyrium Denryle]

A tragedy. I am also noting in the obits she had a female partner of 27 years. Does this make her the first gay astronaut (albeit closeted when she flew as she was married to a male astronaut)?

Typing "Sally Ride sexual orientation" into a search engine, brings up several websites that claim she's a lesbian.

That is because she had been with the same woman for 27 years. It stands to reason.

[Gil Hamilton]

A trend I have noticed. The absolute best among our species seem to die young. You will be missed Dr. Ride. May future generations of humanity exploring the cosmos stand upon your shoulders and see for you. You were among the best of us, and the entire species will feel your loss.

Well, she was 61, which isn't exactly young, but I'm with you on the rest of your sentiment. She did alot both as a staff scientist for NASA and afterwards for science education. She'll definitely be missed.

[Alyrium Denryle]

A trend I have noticed. The absolute best among our species seem to die young. You will be missed Dr. Ride. May future generations of humanity exploring the cosmos stand upon your shoulders and see for you. You were among the best of us, and the entire species will feel your loss.

Well, she was 61, which isn't exactly young, but I'm with you on the rest of your sentiment. She did alot both as a staff scientist for NASA and afterwards for science education. She'll definitely be missed.

Over ten years shorter than median life expectancy man...

[Lord Revan]

that said the fact she was an astronaut could have had some effect (stressfull job and higher then normal radioation dose due to working outside the atmoshpare).

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Pancreatic cancer is random, rare, and very, very nasty. AFAIK all you can do is avoid red and processed meat, don't smoke, don't drink to excess (no more than three drinks a day), keep your weight down to healthy levels, avoid fructose and highly sweetened drinks, diets low in fruits and vegetables, and getting ulcers; and hope you don't get unlucky. Fortunately for everyone, unlucky is very unlucky. It's incredibly rare, as I said; it's just also inevitably fatal, so every time you hear about it it is in the context of someone dying, which makes your chances of getting it seem much worse than they really are.

[Skylon]

that said the fact she was an astronaut could have had some effect (stressfull job and higher then normal radioation dose due to working outside the atmoshpare).

She flew twice and left the astronaut corps in 1987. One of the other women Selected with her flew five times including a long duration stay on Mir, retiring as an astronaut in 2011. As noted I do not think her job was a factor.

[Broomstick]

It's not just frequency of flight that matters, or the duration. Other factors include level of radiation during those flights (it does vary considerably) and her personal susceptibility to cancer.

As Duchess points out, though, pancreatic cancer is rare. The space agencies have usually been more wary of things like leukemia which are more clearly associated with radiation exposure.

[Bright]

A tragedy. I am also noting in the obits she had a female partner of 27 years. Does this make her the first gay astronaut (albeit closeted when she flew as she was married to a male astronaut)?

That partner, as it happens, is now denied federal benefits because of the Defense of Marriage Act.

[Broomstick]

Well, also because they weren't married - which is not the quibble it would have been 10 years ago.

They could have married in recent years in at least some states but for whatever reason did not. I view this as unfortunate on a certain level, because if they had then, if DoMA is overturned in the near future, her partner may have been able to apply for benefits at that point. That's a bit of reach, true, but it's now one entirely off the table.

Of course, we don't know if they would have married had gay marriage been of equal status with straight marriage. There are heterosexual couples that live together long term without marriage (Goldie Hawn/Kurt Russell, Farrah Fawcett/Ryan O'Neil) and whose partners are not entitled to survivors benefits.

It still remains that it's sad and tragic that a couple of 27 years didn't have the option of marriage for most of those years, and even if they had, their marriage would not have been recognized by the Federal government.