Before
I launch into my weekly Thursday Confession, I wanted to take the
time to remember a woman who recently passed away.
On
July 23, the world said farewell to Sally Kristen Ride, who died at
the age of 61 from pancreatic cancer.
In
her sixty-one years of life, nobody could have possibly imagined just
how much of an impact she would have in the world of space
exploration and science. Upon graduating from Stanford University
with a master's degree and a Ph.D. in physics, she became one of
8,000 people to apply for NASA's space program, and was accepted into
the program in 1978. Shortly before her first space flight, she was
put under the microscope by the media, and Sally remembered being
asked some rather demeaning questions by the press, including
questions asking her if she cried when things weren't going well.
Of
course, we all know that Sally Ride proved her naysayers wrong.
When
Sally started at NASA, she began work serving as the ground-based
capsule communicator (CapCom) for the second and third Space Shuttle
flights, and held a key role in the development of the Space
Shuttle's robot arm.
On
June 16, 1983, Sally Ride made American history when she went on her
first space exploration mission as a member of the crew on Space
Shuttle Challenger for STS-7. Although she was not the first woman
in space (she was preceded by Valentina Tereshkova and Svetlana
Savitskaya), she was the first American woman to go into outer space.
On that mission, Ride became the first woman to use the robot arm in
space, and the first to use the arm to retrieve a satellite.
The
following year, Sally took part in her second space flight, also
aboard the Challenger. On that mission, she ended up logging a total
of 343 hours in space. She was in training for her third mission
when the January 28, 1986 Challenger explosion occurred, and shortly
after the tragedy was named to the Rogers Commission Report and
headed its subcommittee on operations. After the investigation, Ride
was assigned to NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C., and upon
arriving, she went to work leading NASA's first strategic planning
effort, founded NASA's Office of Exploration and wrote a report
entitled “Leadership and America's Future in Space”.
In
1987, Ride began working at Stanford's Center for International
Security and Arms Control. Two years later, she began teaching
physics at the University of California, San Diego, and became
director of the California Space Institute. Over the next few years
until her death, she wore many hats. She led the public outreach
efforts of the ISS EarthKAM and GRAIL MoonKAM projects. She founded
Sally Ride Science in 2001, a program which created science programs
and publications for elementary and middle school students, with
special emphasis for young girls looking to enter the space program.
She served on the board during the accident investigation in 2003
involving Space Shuttle Columbia. She even wrote (or co-wrote) five
books about space exploration geared towards children who had an
interest in studying space.
I
would call that a life well lived. Doing something that you love
doing, and dedicating your life to it.
Although
Sally Ride has passed away, her contributions will forever be
remembered by so many people, and her name will forever be
immortalized in the history of NASA.
And
now, for my Thursday Confession.
THURSDAY
CONFESSION #30: Believe it or
not, there was a time in my life where I wanted to pursue a career in
space exploration.
I
know it seems quite hard to believe, but it happens to be true. Do
you remember a few months ago, when I did a blog entry on the set of
Charlie Brown 'Cyclopedias that I owned in my youth? If you can't
recall that entry, I've posted the link to it HERE to refresh your
memory. Anyway, there were fifteen different volumes to the
encyclopedia set, and each volume dealt with a different subject.
I
had the 1990 edition of the set, and of that set, do you know which
two volumes were read the most at my household?
They
were books #3 and #9...both books were on space exploration and the
study of moons and planets.
I
loved to read about space, and I often pretended to build Lego
spaceships, zooming through endless galaxies around my living room at
home. I can't explain it, but I was always fascinated by space. I
even remember being in third grade, and not really caring so much
about science class...until we got to the unit on space. Then, and
only then, was I excited about science. I just thought it would be
so cool to see what it was like in outer space. What would it be
like to experience an environment with zero gravity? What would it
feel like to float through the air in a carefree manner? What would
Earth look like from millions of miles away? These were all
questions that I asked myself constantly when I was younger.
When
I was in school, I had a dream of becoming an astronaut. I even
think that I wrote a paper in second grade about how my life's
ambition was to walk on Mars, just to see if there were actual Mars
bars on the surface.
(Hey,
I said I wanted to be an astronaut, I didn't claim to actually know
what I was talking about in second grade! At least my second grade
teacher had a wonderful sense of humour!)
Whenever
there was a shuttle launch on television, I always wanted to see it.
I still get a little bit upset knowing that I was born twelve years
too late to be around for the first time that man ended up walking on
the moon, but my parents would always have the television on whenever
something big was happening in the world of NASA. Truth be told, I
probably did see Sally Ride's first launch into outer space, but
because I was only two, I don't even remember it.
But
I do remember the Challenger explosion in January 1986. Although I
was just a few months shy of turning five, seeing that spaceship
explode in mid-air is one of the earliest memories that I remember
seeing. It must have resonated in my subconscious for several weeks
after the fact as my family recalls telling me that whenever we
walked downtown, I'd tell every passing stranger all about the
explosion.
The
explosion was a terrible one, as many people watched the whole thing
unfold live. Several people died, including school teacher Christa
McAuliffe, who was to be the first civilian to go into outer space
had the mission been successful. Millions watched the event live,
and reactions ranged from heartache to shock.
I
can only imagine that after the explosion happened, people soon
became fearful that such an event could happen again, but I was too
young to understand the impact of what had happened. I suppose that
if I were a bit older and saw the accident happen, I might have felt
differently about it. But, despite the fate that befell the
Challenger, I still wanted to go up in space. I still wanted to
pursue my dream of becoming an astronaut.
So,
what changed?
Well,
high school, for one. High school science and I did NOT get along.
I often got really terrible grades in science class despite the fact
that I made an honest effort to pass. I ended up with a 72 in the
biology aspect, a 67 in chemistry, and I ended up dropping out of
physics about three weeks into the course, as I literally had zero
understanding of the subject whatsoever. And when you consider that
physics is probably the most important of the sciences that one
needed to actually go into space exploration, that put an end to any
dreams that I ever had of becoming a first class astronaut.
Despite
this setback though, I'm still very much interested in outer space,
and one of the things that I have always wanted to do was go to Space
Camp for a week, just to experience what it would be like to be an
astronaut through simulations and demonstrations. I always wanted to
see the Kennedy Space Center up close, and I actually have a friend
who resides in Florida named Kat, who sent me a care package that had space ice
cream, as well as a little Christmas ornament with Santa Claus
piloting a space ship!
But
you know...dreams can and do change. And in my case, my dream
shifted from going up into outer space, to writing about outer space,
and other various subjects. And, I figure that if Sally Ride could
follow her dream, there's no reason why I can't.
Rest
in peace, Sally Ride. May your star never burn out.
Sally
Kristen Ride
1951-2012
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