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My background is in physics, so I was the mission specialist, who is sort of like the flight engineer on an airplane.

Sally Ride

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Sally Ride
Age: 61 †
Born: 1951
Born: May 26
Died: 2012
Died: July 23
Astronaut
Astrophysicist
Physicist
University Teacher
Writer
LA
California
Dr Sally Kristen Ride
Sally Ride- Hawley
Sally Kristen Ride
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More quotes by Sally Ride

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All adventures, especially into new territory, are scary.
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I can't remember a single time [my parents] ever told me not to do something I wanted to do.
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But when I wasn't working, I was usually at a window looking down at Earth.
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I slept just floating in the middle of the flight deck, the upper deck of the space shuttle.
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The astronauts who came in with me in my astronaut class - my class had 29 men and 6 women - those men were all very used to working with women.
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The rockets light! The shuttle leaps off the launch pad in a cloud of steam and a trail of fire.
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You know, I go around the country a lot.
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If it wasn't for the women's movement, I wouldn't be where I am today.
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Rocket science is tough, and rockets have a way of failing.
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The pressure suit helps if something goes wrong during launch or re-entry - astronauts have a way to parachute off the shuttle. The suits protect you from loss of pressure in case of emergency.
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For quite some time, women at NASA only had scientific backgrounds.
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I find myself looking around for other new, interesting opportunities to dive into.
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We need to make science cool again.
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Once you are assigned to a flight, the whole crew is assigned at the same time, and then that crew trains together for a whole year to prepare for that flight.
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Even though NASA tries to simulate launch, and we practice in simulators, it's not the same - it's not even close to the same.
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I didn't really decide that I wanted to be an astronaut for sure until the end of college.
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Then during the mission itself, I used the space shuttle's robot arm to release a satellite into orbit.
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So most astronauts are astronauts for a couple of years before they are assigned to a flight.
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I think eventually private enterprise will be able to send people into orbit, but I suspect initially it's going to have to be with NASA's help.
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I was always very interested in science, and I knew that for me, science was a better long-term career than tennis.
Sally Ride