In 1983, Sally Ride became the first American woman in space. She blasted off aboard Challenger, culminating a long journey that started in 1977 when the Ph.D. candidate answered an ad seeking astronauts for NASA missions.
In a lecture she gave at Berkeley, Ride said she saw the ad on Page 3 of the student newspaper.
“The moment I saw that ad, I knew that’s what I wanted to do,” she said.
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