Sally Ride, NASA's first woman astronaut, inspires 40 years after her historic Challenger voyage

Sally Ride wanted to become a professional tennis player, and by some accounts had the skill to make it.

But what she once joked was a weak forehand led her in other directions: She became an astronaut instead, and the first American woman to make it to outer space.

This Sunday marks the 40th anniversary of the Californian's historic 1983 trek aboard the Challenger, a journey that broke barriers and opened the world of space exploration to generations of women.

“She didn’t just break the glass ceiling, she shattered it,” said Steven Barber, a Los Angeles-based filmmaker who is working on a documentary about Ride and women in space. “It’s just extraordinary what women have been able to break through and make happen. And Sally was the impetus for all of that.”

Long Island has played a crucial role in space exploration, from the Grumman-produced Lunar Module that landed the first men on the moon in 1969 to parts of the Space Shuttle that transported astronauts starting in the 1980s. Grumman produced the Shuttle’s wings, while Fairchild Republic built the fins.

“Every American who has walked on the moon got there in a spacecraft built on Long Island,” said Joshua Stoff, curator of the Cradle of Aviation.

Ride’s role is gaining new attention on the 40th anniversary of her trip into space. A statue of her that was commissioned by Barber  was installed in front of the Cradle of Aviation Museum in Uniondale last year. It has turned into an iconic spot where visitors take photos of themselves in front of Ride’s likeness.

Meanwhile, Barber is unveiling another copy of the statue at the Ronald Reagan Library & Museum in Simi Valley, California, on July 4.

Multitudes of girls and young women have been inspired by Ride to pursue careers as astronauts or in science and technology.

Today, 18 out of the current 45 astronauts are women, according to NASA.

Shelley LaRose-Arken, commissioner of aviation at Long Island MacArthur Airport, said she grew up mesmerized by astronauts, including Ride, and it led her to a career in aviation.

“Certainly she was a pioneer, ahead of her time in many ways,” said LaRose-Arken, a trained pilot. “She was incredible.”

Teresa Ferraro, CEO and president of East/West Industries Inc. of Ronkonkoma, said Ride made her famous flight just as she was nearing the end of college and deciding on a career. She opted to join her family’s business which makes aircraft seats and other products for crew safety and survival. 

“I think she empowered young girls to reach for the stars,” Ferraro said. “Those days were so different for women.”

She added: “It was very empowering as a young woman in her final college days to say, ‘You can go out there. You could do it.’ ”

Lt. Col. Jasmin Moghbel, a native of Baldwin who often visited the museum as a child, is now an astronaut in NASA’s Artemis program and may become the first woman on the moon, he said.

Ride, who grew up in Los Angeles, captured the attention of the nation on June 18, 1983, when she rode aboard Challenger on a mission that lasted about six days in space. Besides the first American woman in space, she also became the youngest American in space at 32.

The launch at Cape Canaveral attracted 250,000 people, many wearing T-shirts that said, “Ride, Sally Ride” — from the lyrics of the song “Mustang Sally.”

She flew a second Challenger mission in 1984. She was so highly regarded that she became the only person to sit on both panels investigating the Challenger explosion in 1986 and the Columbia crash in 2003.

Ride, a physicist, gained a reputation for asking the tough questions, and was essential to uncovering the cause of the Challenger explosion — “O rings” that became vulnerable when launched in cold weather, according to experts.

“NASA had this major problem they just never addressed and they knew about it,” Stoff said. “I think she was kind of shocked the first time around about how cavalier NASA was about flying the shuttle when they knew there were so many problems and things that could go wrong and they just didn’t address them.”

Ride, who died in 2012 at age 61 of pancreatic cancer, almost didn't become an astronaut, as tennis was her passion as a teenager. At Stanford University, she was the No. 1 player on the women’s team and was nationally ranked. Billie Jean King once urged her to quit college and go pro.

But one day while nearing completion of her doctorate in the late 1970s, she saw an ad in the school newspaper: For the first time, NASA was looking for women to become astronauts.

Ride applied, and in 1978 became one of six women accepted to the program. Besides her intellectual brilliance, her athleticism probably also helped get her in, Stoff said.

Ride had to handle a fair share of male chauvinism at NASA and elsewhere.

At a news conference before the first shuttle flight, Ride was asked a barrage of questions focusing on her gender: Would she wear a bra or makeup in space? Did she cry on the job? “The Tonight Show” host Johnny Carson joked that the shuttle flight would be delayed because Ride had to find a purse to match her shoes.

“I think she had to buck against a very male-dominated NASA to begin with,” Parton said.

But Ride persevered and went on to become a role model for millions of American girls.

“Her importance is really inspirational, because before that American girls had no chance of becoming astronauts,” Stoff said. NASA had been accepting only military pilots and test pilots for its astronaut program, and women were prohibited from those jobs.

Ride “showed that this was legitimate — you can be an astronaut, too, you can go as far as your dreams can take you,” Stoff said.