Tuckahoe NY Pride

Sally Ride was an American physicist and astronaut whose work helped expand NASA’s human spaceflight program. Selected as an astronaut in 1978, she became the first American woman in space in 1983 aboard Space Shuttle Challenger (STS-7), conducting communications and robotic-arm operations, and she flew again in 1984 (STS-41G). After leaving the astronaut corps, she contributed to NASA’s mission planning and served on the Rogers Commission investigating the Challenger disaster and later the Columbia Accident Investigation Board. Following her death, her partner, Tam O’Shaughnessy, revealed Ride was lesbian, underscoring her private resilience.