Sally Ride's Quotes & Sayings

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

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

The rockets light! The shuttle leaps off the launch pad in a cloud of steam and a trail of fire. — Sally Ride

One thing I probably share with everyone else in the astronaut office is composure. — 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

It takes a few years to prepare for a space mission. — 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

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

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

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 did not come to NASA to make history. — Sally Ride

I don't have any nicknames. — 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

We need to make science cool again. — Sally Ride

For a long time, society put obstacles in the way of women who wanted to enter the sciences. — 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

Ever been to Disneyland? That was definitely an E ticket! — Sally Ride

I liked math - that was my favorite subject - and I was very interested in astronomy and in physical science. — 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

When you talk to young girls these days about their role modles, very few mention a chemist like Madame Curie or an astrophysicist and astronaut like Sally Ride, or a zoologist like Jane Goodall. Instead, they look to someone like Madonna ... — W. Ann Reynolds

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

I didn't really decide that I wanted to be an astronaut for sure until the end of college. — Sally Ride

If we want scientists and engineers in the future, we should be cultivating the girls as much as the boys. — Sally Ride

All adventures, especially into new territory, are scary. — Sally Ride

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

Well, we spend an awful lot of our time working and doing experiments. It's very busy up on the shuttle. — Sally Ride

Yes, I did feel a special responsibility to be the first American woman in space. — Sally Ride

The women's movement had already paved the way, I think, for my coming. — Sally Ride

So most astronauts are astronauts for a couple of years before they are assigned to a flight. — 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

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

He holds the elevator door open with one enormous hand and leans out to look at the weather. Then he swings those dark blue eyes to mine, his brow beginning to crease. The familiar bubble forms in my head. I wish he was my friend. I burst it with a pin. "I'll give you a ride," he forces out. "Ugh, no way," I say over my shoulder and run. — Sally Thorne

I haven't written my memoirs or let the television movie be made about my life. — 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

On both of my flights, everything went very well. — 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

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

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

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

Weightless is a great equalizer. — Sally Ride

You know, I go around the country a lot. — Sally Ride

The view of Earth is spectacular. — Sally Ride

So I decided on science when I was in college. — Sally Ride

It's no secret that I've been reluctant to use my name for things. — Sally Ride

It's too bad our society isn't further along. — Sally Ride

Rocket science is tough, and rockets have a way of failing. — 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 view of earth is spectacular from space. Most people imagine that when astronauts look out the window of the shuttle they see the whole earth like that big blue marble that was made famous by the flights that went to the moon. But the shuttle is much, much closer than those astronauts were. So we don't see the whole planet, the whole ball at once, we just see parts of it. — Sally Ride

I've spent my whole life not talking to people, and I don't see why I should start now. — 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

Since this used to be a Martian ship, I thought maybe you'd have reloads that would fit our racks." "Sure," Captain Tseng said without a moment's hesitation. "I'll have the destroyer Sally Ride pull alongside for munitions transfer. — James S.A. Corey

When Muslim radicals and fundamentalists look at the West, they see only the openness that makes us, in their eyes, decadent and promiscuous. They see only the openness that has produced Britney Spears and Janet Jackson. They do not see, and do not want to see, the openness - the freedom of thought and inquiry - that has made us powerful, the openness that has produced Bill Gates and Sally Ride. They deliberately define it all as decadence. Because if openness, women's empowerment, and freedom of thought and inquiry are the real sources of the West's economic strength, then the Arab-Muslim world would have to change. And the fundamentalists and extremists do not want to change. — Thomas L. Friedman

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

The fact that I was going to be the first American woman to go into space carried huge expectations along with it. — Sally Ride

For quite some time, women at NASA only had scientific backgrounds. — 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

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 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

Because I was a tennis player, Billie Jean King was a hero of mine. — 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

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

On the day my daughter was born, I started writing a book for her. The plan was that, over the course of her life, I'd fill it with advice on how to be a strong woman. But along the way, I got caught up in the stories of Amelia Earhart, Sally Ride, and so many others. So how do you pick the best heroes for your kids? — Brad Meltzer

I had both male and female heroes. — Sally Ride

But when I wasn't working, I was usually at a window looking down at Earth. — 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

But even in elementary school and junior high, I was very interested in space and in the space program. — Sally Ride

Young Sally Owens: He will hear my call a mile away. He will whistle my favorite song. He can ride a pony backwards.
Young Gillian Owens: What are you doing?
Young Sally Owens: Summoning up a true love spell called Amas Veritas. He can flip pancakes in the air. He'll be marvelously kind. And his favorite shape will be a star. And he'll have one green eye and one blue.
Young Gillian Owens: Thought you never wanted to fall in love.
Young Sally Owens: That's the point. The guy I dreamed of doesn't exist. And if he doesn't exist I'll never die of a broken heart. — Alice Hoffman

Then during the mission itself, I used the space shuttle's robot arm to release a satellite into orbit. — Sally Ride

So I saw many planets, and they looked just a little bit brighter than they do from Earth. — Sally Ride

I can't remember a single time [my parents] ever told me not to do something I wanted to do. — Sally Ride

No, there wouldn't be," Holden said. "It'd be entirely different." Sally looked at him; he had contradicted her so quietly. "It wouldn't be the same at all. We'd have to go downstairs in elevators with suitcases and stuff. We'd have to call up everyone and tell 'em goodbye and send 'em postcards. And I'd have to work at my father's and ride in Madison Avenue buses and read newspapers. We'd have to go to the Seventy-second Street all the time and see newsreels. Newsreels! There's always a dumb horse race and some dame breaking a bottle over a ship. You don't see what I mean at all." "Maybe I don't. Maybe you don't, either," Sally said. Holden stood up, with his skates swung over one shoulder. "You give me a royal pain," he announced quite dispassionately. — J.D. Salinger

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 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

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

When you're getting ready to launch into space, you're sitting on a big explosion waiting to happen. — 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

The space shuttle is a better and safer rocket than it was before the Challenger accident. — Sally Ride

On a standard space shuttle crew, two of the astronauts have a test pilot background - the commander and the pilot. — Sally Ride

If it wasn't for the women's movement, I wouldn't be where I am today. — 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

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

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

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

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

The stars don't look bigger, but they do look brighter. — 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

No, I think most astronauts recognize that the space shuttle program is very high-risk, and are prepared for accidents. — Sally Ride

I find myself looking around for other new, interesting opportunities to dive into. — Sally Ride

There are aspects of being the first woman in space that I'm not going to enjoy. — 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

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

I slept just floating in the middle of the flight deck, the upper deck of the space shuttle. — Sally Ride

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

It's well known that many girls have a tendency to dumb down when they're in middle school. — 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

Our future lies with today's kids and tomorrow's space exploration. — 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

The most anxious time was during launch, just because that is so dramatic. — 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

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