Sally Ryder

Dr Sally Kristen Ride (English: Dr Sally Kristen Ride, May 26, 1951 – July 23, 2012) was an American physicist and former NASA astronaut who flew on the STS-7 and STS-41-G missions. She joined the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 1978, and in 1983, at the age of 32, she became the first American woman to enter space and the third female astronaut in human history. In 1987, she left NASA to work at the Center for International Security and Arms Control at Stanford University and later as a professor of physics at the University of California, San Diego, where she studied nonlinear optics and Thomson scattering. Ryder is the only person to have served on both the Challenger and Columbia Accident Investigation Boards. As of 2015, she remains the youngest American astronaut to enter space. After Ryder's death, her same-sex partner, Tam O'Shaughnessy, was revealed in an obituary. This made Ryder the first openly gay astronaut and the first openly lesbian astronaut.