Sally Ride -The Asian Age
Sally Kristen Ride was an American engineer, physicist and astronaut. Born in Los Angeles, she joined NASA in 1978 and became the first American woman in space in 1983.
Ride was the third woman in space overall, after USSR cosmonauts Valentina Tereshkova (1963) and Svetlana Savitskaya (1982). Ride remains the youngest American astronaut to have traveled to space, having done so at the age of 32.
After flying twice on the Orbiter Challenger, she left NASA in 1987. She served on the committees that investigated the Challenger and Columbia space shuttle disasters, the only person to participate in both. Ride died of pancreatic cancer on July 23, 2012.