Sally Ride

I’m really sad about the death of Sally Ride. Aside from all her other achievements, she devoted herself to getting kids, especially girls, excited about math, science and technology. She was 61.

On April 28, 1994 (yes, I really know the date … I keep records), Sally spoke at the Caltech physics colloquium about the future of the US Space Program, and in particular about the case for building the International Space Station. The talk was remarkably frank about how ill suited the Space Station would be for scientific research.

My daughter Carina was 8, and I took her to Caltech after school to meet Sally. Carina brought her copy of Sally’s book To Space and Back, which Sally signed, “To Carina, Reach for the Stars! – Sally Ride”
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