Sally Ride by Christy G.
		In 1983, many Americans were excited for astronaut Sally Ride. Men had traveled to outer space, but Sally was the first American woman to become an astronaut. As a child Sally Kristen Ride wanted to play shortstop for the L.A. Dodgers. As a teenager, she wanted a tennis career. Sally was born in 1951 and grew up in Encino, California. Sally was athletic and liked to play football and baseball. Later, Sally almost did make tennis her career. But she decided to continue her education instead. Sally liked her math and science classes. She was a good studentand got strate A's in school. After graduate school, Sally found out that N.A.S.A, the govermant space program, was looking for astronauts! she decided to apply. NASA is short for National Aeronautics and space Administation. More than 8,000 people wanted to be astronauts. NASA chose only 35. Six of those people were women, Sally was one of them. Sally learned how to fly in high-speed Jets and how to parachute. she learned how to scuba dive and how to survive in the water. She also learned more about gravity. gravity is the force that holds things down on the earth. out in space, gravity works diffrentlly. Everything is a spacecraft flouts. Sally learned how to eat, drink and do scienctific experiments while floating. It took five years to get ready. In 1983 the day came for Sally and four other astronauts to ride the space shuttle challenger. She was only 32 years old and hade already done so much. peaple were proud of her. Sally did Scientific experiments and helped use a robot arm to release a satellite into space. That satellite tookthe first photos of a shuttle in orbit. When she got back, Sally said she was sure tha flight was the maot fun she would ever have in her life. Sally was a astronaut at NASA for eight years. She flew into space one more time, in 1984. Then in 1986, Sally Ride became a teacher of California. She also is director of the California Space Institute. Sally Kristen Ride is still alive right now.