“Over the many years since my flight, it became clear to me there are a lot of kids, including girls, who are curious about science, about the world, about life on Mars, about how to design a roller coaster. But they lose that, partly because our system doesn't put a lot of emphasis on science and ma…”— Sally Ride, 30670749.weebly.com
“Really the only bad moments in our training involved the press. Whereas NASA appeared to be very enlightened about flying women astronauts, the press didn't appear to be.”— Sally Ride, businessinsider.com
“I wish that there had been another woman on my flight. I think it would've been a lot easier.”— Sally Ride, businessinsider.com
“The worst question that I’ve gotten was whether I cried when we got malfunctions.”— Sally Ride, blankonblank.org
“The view of Earth is spectacular. The shuttle is pretty close to Earth. It only flies between 200 and 350 miles above Earth. So it's really pretty close. So we don't see the whole planet, like the astronauts who went to the moon did. So we can see much more detail. We can see cities during the day a…”— Sally Ride, teacher.scholastic.com
“I did feel a special responsibility to be the first American woman in space. I felt very honored, and I knew that people would be watching very closely, and I felt it was very, very important that I do a good job.”— Sally Ride, teacher.scholastic.com
“The most anxious time was during launch, just because that is so dramatic.”— Sally Ride, teacher.scholastic.com
“For quite some time, women at NASA only had scientific backgrounds. So it would've been impossible to have an all-women crew because there weren't women pilots. But now it would be very possible!”— Sally Ride, teacher.scholastic.com
“I knew five of them very well. Four of them were in my same astronaut class, and we had been together for almost eight years at the time of the accident. So we were very good friends. It was very hard.”— Sally Ride, teacher.scholastic.com