Sally Kristen Ride was an American astronaut and physicist. She joined NASA in 1978 and became the first American woman in space in 1983. Inspirational Sally Ride quotes will get you through anything when the going gets tough and help you succeed in every aspect of life.
Most Famous Sally Ride Quotes
Science is fun. Science is curiosity. We all have natural curiosity. Science is a process of investigating. It’s posing questions and coming up with a method. It’s delving in. – Sally Ride
It takes a couple of years just to get the background and knowledge that you need before you can go into detailed training for your mission. – Sally Ride
I would like to be remembered as someone who was not afraid to do what she wanted to do, and as someone who took risks along the way in order to achieve her goals. – Sally Ride
The view of earth is absolutely spectacular, and the feeling of looking back and seeing your planet as a planet is just an amazing feeling. It’s a totally different perspective, and it makes you appreciate, actually, how fragile our existence is. – Sally Ride
I’ve discovered that half the people would love to go into space and there’s no need to explain it to them. The other half can’t understand and I couldn’t explain it to them. If someone doesn’t know why, I can’t explain it. – Sally Ride
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
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
My parents must have done a great job. Anytime I wanted to pursue something that they weren’t familiar with, that was not part of their lifestyle, they let me go ahead and do it. – Sally Ride
If we want scientists and engineers in the future, we should be cultivating the girls as much as the boys. – Sally Ride
The most important steps that I followed were studying math and science in school. I was always interested in physics and astronomy and chemistry and I continued to study those subjects through high school and college on into graduate school. That’s what prepared me for being an astronaut; it actually gave me the qualifications to be selected to be an astronaut. – Sally Ride
Suppose you came across a woman lying on the street with an elephant sitting on her chest. You notice she is short of breath. Shortness of breath can be a symptom of heart problems. In her case, the much more likely cause is the elephant on her chest. For a long time, society put obstacles in the way of women who wanted to enter the sciences. That is the elephant. Until the playing field has veen leveled and lingering stereotypes are gone, you can’t even ask the question. – Sally Ride
When the space shuttle’s engines cut off, and you’re finally in space, in orbit, weightless… I remember unstrapping from my seat, floating over to the window, and that’s when I got my first view of Earth. Just a spectacular view, and a chance to see our planet as a planet. – Sally Ride
I don’t have any nicknames. – Sally Ride
I didn’t really decide that I wanted to be an astronaut for sure until the end of college. But even in elementary school and junior high, I was very interested in space and in the space program. – Sally Ride
The most anxious time was during launch, just because that is so dramatic. – Sally Ride
I didn’t go into it to be a role model. But I think it’s important for little girls growing up, and young women, to have one in every walk of life. So from that point of view, I’m proud to be a role model! – Sally Ride
They were very excited. They all went down to Florida to watch the launch, and they spent time there and at NASA during the flight. They were very excited about the whole process. I’m sure they were a little nervous, too! – Sally Ride
The worst question that I’ve gotten was whether I cried when we got malfunctions. – Sally Ride
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
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
I wish that there had been another woman on my flight. I think it would’ve been a lot easier. – Sally Ride
I think most astronauts recognize that the space shuttle program is very high-risk, and are prepared for accidents. After the Challenger accident, NASA put in a lot of time to improve the safety of the space shuttle to fix the things that had gone wrong. The space shuttle is a better and safer rocket than it was before the Challenger accident. – Sally Ride
The space shuttle has something that looks very much like a toilet. And on Earth, a toilet works because of gravity. It pulls the water away from your body. In space, you have to use something to pull the liquid from your body, so the space toilet uses air suction. It pulls the liquid from your body, and it works very well. – Sally Ride
Looking back on it, it never really occurred to me that I couldn’t accomplish anything I wanted to. I think that there’s a lot of credit due my parents—and teachers that I was lucky enough to run into—that I really never did think that I couldn’t do something because I was female. I don’t ever remember thinking that and that’s a wonderful thing to be able to say. – Sally Ride
I wasn’t really scared. I was very excited, and I was very anxious. When you’re getting ready to launch into space, you’re sitting on a big explosion waiting to happen. So most astronauts getting ready to lift off are excited and very anxious and worried about that explosion—because if something goes wrong in the first seconds of launch, there’s not very much you can do. – Sally Ride
I think there probably is life, maybe primitive life, in outer space. There might be very primitive life in our solar system—single-cell animals, that sort of thing. We may know the answer to that in five or ten years. There is very likely to be life in other solar systems, in planets around other stars. But we won’t know about that for a long time. – Sally Ride
I liked launch better. It’s much more exciting. And it’s very different from any experience you can have on earth. 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. It’s a very exciting experience. Landing is very exciting, too, but during landing the space shuttle acts very much like an airplane. So although it’s different in many ways from landing on an airplane, in some ways the feeling is familiar. – Sally Ride
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 math. It’s not cool to be a scientist or engineer. These kids want to do things that are cool—like be a pro basketball player, an actor, a singer, a playwright. Things that out culture puts in front of them in papers and on TV all the time. When they’re relatively young, they think science is cool and interesting, but they lose that in socializing. That was the motivation for Sally Ride Science. – Sally Ride
The world and our perceptions have changed a lot, even since the ’70s, but there are lingering stereotypes. If you ask an 11-year-old to draw a scientist, she’s likely to draw a geeky guy with a pocket protector. That’s just not an image an 11-year-old girl aspires to. As she looks on the Web, she sees men as scientists. That’s not particularly appealing to tween girls. And if an 11-year-old girl says she wants to be an engineer, she’ll likely get a different reaction from peers than she would if a boy her age said the same thing, and maybe even different reactions from teachers and parents. – Sally Ride
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We’ve always thought of ourselves as an innovative country that keeps at the forefront, a world leader for the last many decades. We’ve always prided ourselves on innovation. In World War II, the Cold War, the race to the moon—our self-image is being a technologically superior country. Without the new generation having some background or ability to enter engineering or science, we risk losing that. It’s part of our identity. We’re pioneers. We’re innovators. And we’re not producing engineers and scientists in the numbers we need. – Sally Ride
Different astronauts sleep in different ways. I slept just floating in the middle of the flight deck, the upper deck of the space shuttle. Some astronauts sleep in sort of beds—compartments that you can open up and crawl into and then close up, almost like a little bedroom. Some astronauts sleep in sleeping bags that are Velcroed into one of the walls in the shuttle. It’s easy to sleep floating around—it’s very comfortable. But you have to be careful that you don’t float into somebody or something! – Sally Ride
So I decided on science when I was in college. – Sally Ride
One thing I probably share with everyone else in the astronaut office is composure. – Sally Ride
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
For quite some time, women at NASA only had scientific backgrounds. – Sally Ride
The experience of being in space didn’t change my perspective of myself or of the planet or of life. I had no spiritual experience. – Sally Ride
For a long time, society put obstacles in the way of women who wanted to enter the sciences. – Sally Ride
Ever been to Disneyland? That was definitely an E ticket! – Sally Ride
The food isn’t too bad. It’s very different from the food that the astronauts ate in the very early days of the space program. – Sally Ride
So most astronauts are astronauts for a couple of years before they are assigned to a flight. – Sally Ride
But even in elementary school and junior high, I was very interested in space and in the space program. – Sally Ride
On both of my flights, everything went very well. – Sally Ride
Inspirational Sally Ride Quotes
So I saw many planets, and they looked just a little bit brighter than they do from Earth. – Sally Ride
On a standard space shuttle crew, two of the astronauts have a test pilot background – the commander and the pilot. – Sally Ride
Some astronauts sleep in sort of beds – compartments that you can open up and crawl into and then close up, almost like a little bedroom. – Sally Ride
The astronauts who came in with me in my astronaut class – my class had 29 men and 6 women – those men were all very used to working with women. – Sally Ride
The space shuttle is a better and safer rocket than it was before the Challenger accident. – Sally Ride
It’s no secret that I’ve been reluctant to use my name for things. – Sally Ride
It’s well known that many girls have a tendency to dumb down when they’re in middle school. – Sally Ride
I think eventually private enterprise will be able to send people into orbit, but I suspect initially it’s going to have to be with NASA’s help. – Sally Ride
I was always very interested in science, and I knew that for me, science was a better long-term career than tennis. – Sally Ride
It was hard to become an astronaut. Not anywhere near as much physical training as people imagine, but a lot of mental training, a lot of learning. You have to learn everything there is to know about the Space Shuttle and everything you are going to be doing, and everything you need to know if something goes wrong, and then once you have learned it all, you have to practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice until everything is second nature, so it’s a very, very difficult training, and it takes years. – Sally Ride
There’s a huge amount of pressure on every astronaut, because when you get right down to it, the experiments that are conducted on a space flight, or the satellites that are carried up, the work that’s to be done, is important and expensive work, and you are up there for a week or two on a Space Shuttle flight. The country has invested a lot of money in you and your training, and the Space Shuttle and everything that’s in it, and you have to do things correctly. You can’t make a mistake during that week or two that you’re in space. – Sally Ride
You can picture pretty easily if there were a paying passenger aboard a rocket that failed, like Challenger failed. Certainly it would be a tragedy, and a tragedy for the company. They would have a hard time recovering from it. – Sally Ride
The rockets light! The shuttle leaps off the launch pad in a cloud of steam and a trail of fire. – Sally Ride
I find myself looking around for other new, interesting opportunities to dive into. – Sally Ride
Because I was a tennis player, Billie Jean King was a hero of mine. – Sally Ride
I have been a bit of a risk-taker all my life. – Sally Ride
I have a lot of common sense. I know what needs to be done and how to approach it. I have an ability to work with people on large enterprises. – Sally Ride
Astronauts will remain the explorers, the pioneers-the first to go back to moon and on to Mars. But I think it’s really important to make space space available to as many people as we can. It’s going to be a while before we can launch people for less than $20 million a ticket. But that day is coming. – Sally Ride
Yes, I did feel a special responsibility to be the first American woman in space. – Sally Ride
Weightless is a great equalizer. – Sally Ride
If they asked me if I wanted to go into space tomorrow, I’d do it in a heartbeat. On the other hand, if they asked me if I wanted to go into training for three years and then go into space again, I’d probably say no. – Sally Ride
It’s too bad our society isn’t further along. – Sally Ride
I did not come to NASA to make history. – Sally Ride
We can see cities during the day and at night, and we can watch rivers dump sediment into the ocean, and see hurricanes form. – Sally Ride
I think maybe it’s too bad that our society isn’t further along, and this is such a big deal. I think it’s time…that people realize that women in this country can do any job they want to do. – Sally Ride
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
I slept just floating in the middle of the flight deck, the upper deck of the space shuttle. – Sally Ride
No, I think most astronauts recognize that the space shuttle program is very high-risk and are prepared for accidents. – Sally Ride
I love the John Glenn model… I may call NASA in 25 years or so, and see if they’d like to send me to Mars. – Sally Ride
Rocket science is tough, and rockets have a way of failing. – Sally Ride
So most astronauts getting ready to lift off are excited and very anxious and worried about that explosion – because if something goes wrong in the first seconds of launch, there’s not very much you can do. – Sally Ride
That’s something that is almost part of being human and I’m certain that will continue. – Sally Ride
Three Secrets to Success: Be willing to learn new things. Be able to assimilate new information quickly. Be able to get along with and work with other people. – Sally Ride
All adventures, especially into new territory, are scary. – Sally Ride
I never went into physics or the astronaut corps to become a role model. But after my first flight, it became clear to me that I was one. And I began to understand the importance of that to people. Young girls need to see role models in whatever careers they may choose, just so they can picture themselves doing those jobs someday. You can’t be what you can’t see. – Sally Ride
The stars don’t look bigger, but they do look brighter. – Sally Ride
There are lots of opportunities out there for women to work in these fields, … Girls just need support, encouragement and mentoring to follow through with the sciences. – Sally Ride
I suggest taking the high road and have a little sence of humour and let things roll off your back. I think that’s very important. – Sally Ride
Astronauts will remain the explorers, the pioneers-the first to go back to moon and on to Mars. But I think it’s really important to make space space available to as many people as we can. It’s going to be a while before we can launch people for less than $20 million a ticket. But that day is coming. – Sally Ride
Our future lies with today’s kids and tomorrow’s space exploration. – Sally Ride
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
When you’re getting ready to launch into space, you’re sitting on a big explosion waiting to happen. – Sally Ride
We need to make science cool again. – Sally Ride
When you can feel that close to something you’re used to seeing from this great distance, well, it changes a person. – Sally Ride
I think it’s important for little girls growing up, and young women, to have one in every walk of life. So from that point of view, I’m proud to be a role model! – Sally Ride
Anything from making a mistake on an experiment that would ruin some scientist on earth’s experiment – career, potentially – to doing something wrong with the satellite that a country was depending on for its communications, to making some mistake that could actually cost you and the crew either a mission or your lives. So there is a lot of pressure that’s put on every astronaut to just make sure that he or she understands exactly what to do, exactly when to do it, and is trained and prepared to carry it out. – Sally Ride
I’ve spent my whole life not talking to people, and I don’t see why I should start now. – Sally Ride
It was a real honor for me to get to be the first woman astronaut. I think it’s really important that young girls that are growing up today can see that women can be astronauts too. There have actually been a lot of women, who are astronauts, that that’s a career that’s open to them. – Sally Ride
The thing I’ll remember most about the flight is that it was fun. In fact, I’m sure it was the most fun that I’ll ever have in my life. – Sally Ride
Studying whether there’s life on Mars or studying how the universe began, there’s something magical about pushing back the frontiers of knowledge. That’s something that is almost part of being human, and I’m certain that will continue. – Sally Ride
I can’t remember a single time [my parents] ever told me not to do something I wanted to do. – Sally Ride
Everywhere I go I meet girls and boys who want to be astronauts and explore space, or they love the ocean and want to be oceanographers, or they love animals and want to be zoologists, or they love designing things and want to be engineers. I want to see those same stars in their eyes in 10 years and know they are on their way! – Sally Ride
But when I wasn’t working, I was usually at a window looking down at Earth. – Sally Ride
The experience of being in space didn’t change my perspective of myself or of the planet or of life. I had no spiritual experience. – Sally Ride
After the Challenger accident, NASA put in a lot of time to improve the safety of the space shuttle to fix the things that had gone wrong. – Sally Ride
My background is in physics, so I was the mission specialist, who is sort of like the flight engineer on an airplane. – Sally Ride
The fact that I was going to be the first American woman to go into space carried huge expectations along with it. – Sally Ride
It’s easy to sleep floating around – it’s very comfortable. But you have to be careful that you don’t float into somebody or something! – Sally Ride
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
Then during the mission itself, I used the space shuttle’s robot arm to release a satellite into orbit. – Sally Ride
I liked math – that was my favorite subject – and I was very interested in astronomy and in physical science. – Sally Ride
I do a lot of running and hiking, and I also collect stamps – space stamps and Olympics stamps. – Sally Ride
Well, we spend an awful lot of our time working and doing experiments. It’s very busy up on the shuttle. – Sally Ride
I haven’t written my memoirs or let the television movie be made about my life. – Sally Ride
It takes a few years to prepare for a space mission. – Sally Ride
The women’s movement had already paved the way, I think, for my coming. – Sally Ride
There are aspects of being the first woman in space that I’m not going to enjoy. – Sally Ride
You know, I go around the country a lot. – Sally Ride
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
Women make up only 25 percent of the science, engineering and technology workforce… We are delighted to be working with NASA Ames to give Silicon Valley area girls a chance to explore and develop their potential in science at an age when many begin to drift away from their natural interest. – Sally Ride
My parents didn’t have a scientific bone in their body, and their daughter was pursuing a career in astrophysics. They didn’t even know what astrophysics meant, but they supported me, – Sally Ride
Today, the astronaut corps is almost 25% female, … and I want that to continue to rise. – Sally Ride
If girls are interested, they have the potential to go further, … There are still lingering stereotypes that affect girls in middle school, and they lose interest in the subjects. – Sally Ride
Eventually private enterprise will be able to send people into orbit, but I suspect initially it’s going to have to be with NASA’s help. Whether it’s going to be a consortium, or one entity remains to be seen. I could be wrong. I could be one of the old fogies! Rocket science is tough, and rockets have a way of failing. It happens. A company has to be willing to bear the risk of its rocket failing. It’s a very large capital investment. – Sally Ride
If it wasn’t for the women’s movement, I wouldn’t be where I am today. – Sally Ride
I had both male and female heroes. – Sally Ride
