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It takes a few years to prepare for a space mission.

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
Prepare
Mission
Missions
Takes
Space
Years

More quotes by Sally Ride

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On both of my flights, everything went very well.
Sally Ride
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NASA has to approve whatever we wear, so there are clothes to choose from, like space shorts - we wear those a lot - and NASA T-shirts.
Sally Ride
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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.
Sally Ride
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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.
Sally Ride
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But even in elementary school and junior high, I was very interested in space and in the space program.
Sally Ride
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I didn't really decide that I wanted to be an astronaut for sure until the end of college.
Sally Ride
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But when I wasn't working, I was usually at a window looking down at Earth.
Sally Ride
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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.
Sally Ride
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The space shuttle is a better and safer rocket than it was before the Challenger accident.
Sally Ride
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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
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I slept just floating in the middle of the flight deck, the upper deck of the space shuttle.
Sally Ride
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So most astronauts are astronauts for a couple of years before they are assigned to a flight.
Sally Ride
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Rocket science is tough, and rockets have a way of failing.
Sally Ride
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For whatever reason, I didn't succumb to the stereotype that science wasn't for girls. I got encouragement from my parents. I never ran into a teacher or a counselor who told me that science was for boys. A lot of my friends did.
Sally Ride
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I did not come to NASA to make history.
Sally Ride
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That's something that is almost part of being human and I'm certain that will continue.
Sally Ride
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I can't remember a single time [my parents] ever told me not to do something I wanted to do.
Sally Ride
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The best advice I can give anybody is to try to understand who you are and what you want to do, and don't be afraid to go down that road and do whatever it takes and work as hard as you have to work to achieve that.
Sally Ride
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For quite some time, women at NASA only had scientific backgrounds.
Sally Ride
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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