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donate to Bedtime History, go to bedtimei

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History stories dot com and click on

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donate in the menu to donate via

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Patreon. Did

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you ever find something you wanted to try

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so badly that it was all you thought

0:26

about. Maybe you wanted to hit a home

0:28

run, or sing like your favorite pop

0:30

star, or learn to juggle. If

0:32

you tried that thing, and I hope you did as

0:35

long as it wasn't too dangerous, you might

0:37

have found out that it was a little harder than you

0:39

expected. Maybe you struggled

0:41

at first, Maybe it suddenly didn't

0:43

seem as fun as you thought. Or maybe

0:45

the thing was so cool that you just had to

0:47

keep going. You practiced

0:49

and practiced, asked other people who

0:52

knew how to do the thing. Maybe you eventually

0:54

did it. Whether or not you hit the

0:56

home run, sing that song, or learn

0:58

to juggle, you probably learned something

1:00

about yourself. You might have learned

1:03

that it feels amazing to see your hard work

1:05

pay off, or you might have learned

1:07

that you hated juggling and we'd rather spend

1:09

your time learning to skateboard. Both

1:11

are important things to learn about yourself.

1:16

Everyone spends some time learning what they like

1:19

and what they're capable of. Sometimes

1:21

they learn that what they are capable of isn't

1:24

necessarily what they like, and something

1:26

else is calling them. This is what

1:28

happened to Sally Ride.

1:30

Before we can get to what happened, though, let's

1:33

go back to southern California in

1:35

the year nineteen fifty one.

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This was the year Sally was born to Dale

1:40

and Carol Ride. As

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a child, Sally's dream job was to play

1:44

baseball for the Los Angeles Dodgers.

1:47

She was athletic and was often chosen

1:49

first for baseball teams. No women

1:52

played Major League baseball at the time, but this

1:54

didn't matter to Sally. Dale

1:56

and Carol raised her and her sister, who was nicknamed

1:58

Bear, to explain and try anything

2:01

that interested them. To Sally,

2:03

this meant playing sports and stargazing

2:06

through a telescope with her father. Her

2:08

favorite constellation was O Ryan.

2:11

Many people in the nineteen fifties thought

2:13

of these as boy things, but Sally

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knew they were also girl things.

2:19

When she was nine, Sally's family traveled

2:21

to Europe. Between seeing the amazing

2:23

sights, Sally played tennis for the first

2:25

time on the trip. Just like that,

2:28

Sally was hooked. Tennis

2:30

became the center of her life.

2:33

When they got back to the United States, Dale

2:35

and Carol got Sally a tennis coach, and

2:37

she began competing. Before

2:40

long, she was ranked in the top twenty players

2:42

under twelve in southern California.

2:46

Tennis also opened other doors for Sally.

2:49

A private high school gave her a scholarship to

2:51

play for their team. In high school,

2:53

Sally rediscovered her love of science.

2:56

One teacher, doctor Elizabeth Mamertz,

2:59

helped her see that there were opportunities for

3:01

her in science. At the time,

3:03

there weren't many women who got advanced degrees

3:05

in science, but doctor Mammarty's

3:08

had a PhD in human physiology.

3:11

Sally was amazed by how smart and curious

3:13

her teacher was and how she approached

3:16

every problem carefully and methodically,

3:18

like a puzzle. After

3:22

high school, tennis again helped Sally

3:24

find a place at school. She

3:27

headed to Swarthmore College to study

3:29

physics and play on the tennis

3:31

team. Soon after arriving,

3:33

though, Sally's mind began to wander to

3:35

new possibilities. She

3:37

was excelling at tennis. She won

3:39

all her college matches and even

3:41

became the Eastern Intercollegiate

3:44

Women single champion. Sally

3:47

decided she wanted to try to become a professional

3:49

tennis player. She packed up

3:51

her bags and left Pennsylvania to return

3:53

to southern California. Back

3:56

in sunny California, Sally practiced

3:59

every day for hours, year round,

4:02

but soon she realized she'd need to train even

4:04

more in order to make it as a pro. Her

4:07

body ached, she was tired.

4:10

Playing tennis wasn't as fun when she had to do

4:12

it eight hours a day in order to compete,

4:14

Sally decided to return to college full

4:17

time. She headed

4:19

to Stanford University, about a six hour

4:21

drive from Los Angeles. There,

4:23

she reacquainted herself with her other childhood

4:26

passion, science. She

4:28

studied physics, how stars and planets

4:31

work, and even lasers. This

4:33

time, Sally was sure she had made the right choice

4:36

about her future. In fact, she

4:38

stayed at Stanford an extra five years

4:40

to earn her PhD in physics.

4:45

But even as Sally focused more on physics,

4:48

she was still open to new opportunities.

4:51

One morning in nineteen seventy seven, shortly

4:54

before she finished her PhD, a

4:56

huge opportunity stared her in the face

4:58

when she opened her morning paper. It

5:01

was the kind of opportunity that made all her past

5:03

hobbies and interests fall into

5:06

place, even though she could have never

5:08

known this opportunity would come along. It

5:10

was perfect for Sally's background as

5:12

a sports loving physicist. In

5:15

the paper was an ad NASA

5:17

was recruiting new astronauts to fly in

5:20

the space Shuttle program, and

5:22

for the first time they were accepting applications

5:24

from women. Sally had expected

5:27

to get a job as a college teacher, but

5:29

the chance to be an astronaut doesn't come along

5:31

every day, and Sally was excited

5:34

by the possibility of actually

5:36

visiting space after studying

5:38

the stars and planets and gazing up at Orion

5:41

on so many nights, and

5:43

astronauts need to be in great physical shape

5:45

too. All her years of playing tennis

5:47

would be an advantage.

5:52

NASA was overdue in sending women to space.

5:55

In fact, all the astronauts until this time

5:57

had been men. Many Air Force

5:59

pilots Russia had sent a woman

6:01

to space in nineteen sixty three.

6:04

Now, in addition to recruiting pilots, NASA

6:06

was opening the astronaut program to anyone

6:09

with training in science and engineering.

6:11

They got thousands of applications. Out

6:14

of all those applicants, Sally and five

6:16

other women were chosen to train as

6:18

astronauts. Not only

6:21

were the first women chosen to be part of the Space

6:23

Shuttle program, the class of thirty

6:25

five men and women included the first Asian

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Americans and African American

6:30

astronauts. NASA

6:33

was impressed by Sally. She was

6:35

athletic and strong, committed and

6:37

smart. Years of playing competitive

6:40

tennis had taught her how to keep cool

6:42

under pressure. But even though

6:44

Sally had the right stuff to be an astronaut,

6:47

there was a lot to learn. She

6:49

had to know Space Shuttle systems inside

6:51

and out. She learned about geology,

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oceanography, and computer science

6:56

since she would need to perform all sorts of experiments

6:58

in space. The astronaut

7:00

candidates learned to fly supersonic jets.

7:03

Though most of them wouldn't actually need to fly at

7:05

the Shuttle, NASA still used

7:07

professional pilots for that. It was important

7:10

to know how it worked. In case there was ever an

7:12

emergency. Finally,

7:14

in nineteen eighty two, after years of training

7:16

and working on projects and Shuttle missions

7:19

from the ground, Sally got that

7:21

call all astronauts are eager for.

7:23

NASA had assigned her to a mission.

7:26

She would go to space in nineteen eighty three

7:28

as a mission specialist on the Space Shuttle

7:31

Challenger. Sally would

7:33

have a whole year to prepare for the mission. As

7:35

part of her work on the ground for NASA, Sally

7:38

had helped design a robotic arm that would

7:40

move things like satellites in and out

7:42

of the Space Shuttle's cargo bay. On

7:45

her mission, Sally would use the arm to

7:47

place a satellite outside in space. It

7:50

would fly alongside the Shuttle for a few hours,

7:52

taking pictures and doing experiments. Then

7:55

Sally would use the robotic arm to grab

7:57

the satellite and pull it back into

7:59

the Shuttle. It was an exciting

8:01

project for Sallie, but she was disappointed

8:04

to find that news reporters weren't very

8:06

interested in it. Instead, they

8:08

always asked her questions about what it would be

8:10

like for a woman in space, which

8:13

you were make up in space, would should be able to have children

8:15

after going into space, would she cry

8:17

if she made a mistake? Understandably,

8:20

Sally found these questions annoying at

8:22

best, even insulting. Why

8:24

couldn't reporters ask her about the actual

8:27

mission, the science should be doing,

8:29

or the amazing robotic arms she designed, instead

8:31

of obsessing over her gender. But

8:35

Sally kept her focus on training and

8:37

ignored the rude questions. She

8:39

made sure she knew every step of every

8:41

task she needed to do. During launch, in

8:44

space and on landing on

8:46

June eighteenth, nineteen eighty three, Sallie

8:49

was ready to lift off. The

8:52

mission was a success. The crew

8:54

performed experiments and the robotic

8:56

arm worked beautifully. But

8:59

besides conducting experiments and gaining

9:01

experience in space, Sally

9:03

realized something far more profound.

9:06

As she looked out the Space Shuttle window for the first

9:08

time, she noticed something that astonished

9:10

her. She said this, It

9:13

looked as if someone had taken a royal blue

9:15

crayon and just traced along the

9:17

Earth's horizon. And then I

9:19

realized that that blue line, that really

9:21

thin royal blue line, was Earth's atmosphere,

9:25

and that was all there was of it. And

9:27

it's so clear from that perspective, how fragile,

9:29

our existence is. Sally

9:33

flew on another mission two years later, again

9:35

on the Challenger. Sally

9:37

hoped she'd be able to fly again after her second

9:39

mission, but in nineteen eighty six, a

9:41

terrible tragedy through her hopes and

9:44

the whole Shuttle program into doubt.

9:47

The Space Shuttle Challenger, which Sally had

9:49

flown on twice, exploded a

9:51

few minutes after liftoff. Seven

9:53

astronauts were killed, including some Sally

9:55

had trained with. Sally was

9:57

devastated, but she was one of the best

10:00

people to help figure out what went wrong. NASA

10:03

canceled all its Space Shuttle missions for years

10:05

while Sally and a committee of other experts

10:07

investigated the accident. They

10:10

found that cold weather that morning in Florida caused

10:12

a part to break during the flight. By

10:16

this time, Sally realized she would probably

10:18

never fly on another mission. She

10:20

stayed at NASA another year after the investigation,

10:23

helping them plan for the future, but

10:26

in nineteen eighty seven she realized it was time

10:28

to leave. Sally

10:30

went back to Stanford University to work as

10:32

a physics professor. She also

10:34

reconnected with the childhood friend tam

10:37

O'Shaughnessy. The two fell

10:39

in love and would spend the next twenty seven years

10:41

together. Tam was also a scientist,

10:43

a biologist, and she loved sports and

10:46

exercise too. Sally

10:48

and Tam also shared a passion for encouraging

10:50

children, especially girls, to explore

10:52

science and technology. They

10:55

wrote books and started a foundation together

10:57

that offered science summer camps and science

11:00

festivals. Sally even

11:02

started a program that let kids in middle

11:04

school control a satellite launched into

11:06

space on the Shuttle, taking

11:08

pictures of Earth from hundreds of miles

11:11

above the ground. In twenty

11:13

eleven, Sally passed away at her

11:15

home in California. A year later,

11:17

President Obama awarded Sally a Presidential

11:20

Medal of Honor for her accomplishments. Tam

11:23

accepted the ward on her behalf. People

11:26

change their minds sometimes about what they want

11:28

to do. New dreams can take

11:30

hold. But the most important thing

11:32

to do is if you want to make a dream come true, is

11:35

to act. Find out what you need

11:37

to do to actually make that dream a reality,

11:39

and then do it. You may find that

11:41

you don't like the doing as much as the dream,

11:44

just like Sally Ride did with pro tennis. But

11:47

like Sally, if you try enough things, Eventually

11:50

you'll find out the right thing for you. And

11:52

you never know when an opportunity will

11:54

come along that requires your unique

11:56

combination of talents, skills,

11:58

and knowledge, So keep exploring.

12:02

We hope you enjoyed this episode about

12:04

Sally Ride. Be sure to tune in next

12:07

Monday for a new episode.