<P> Sally Kristen Ride ( May 26 , 1951 -- July 23 , 2012 ) was an American 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 worked for two years at Stanford University 's Center for International Security and Arms Control , then at the University of California , San Diego as a professor of physics , primarily researching nonlinear optics and Thomson scattering . 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 . </P>
<P> Sally Kristen Ride ( May 26 , 1951 -- July 23 , 2012 ) was an American 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 worked for two years at Stanford University 's Center for International Security and Arms Control , then at the University of California , San Diego as a professor of physics , primarily researching nonlinear optics and Thomson scattering . 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 . </P>
when was the first american woman in space
when was the first american woman in space
Sally Kristen Ride
Sally Kristen Ride