What if I told you that a girl who loved tennis and science would one day rocket into space and change history forever?

The Day Sally Ride Blasted Off to Make History!

How a California girl became America's first woman in space

Sally Ride zoomed into space and became the first American woman astronaut ever!

On June 18, 1983, something AMAZING happened at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. A rocket roared to life, flames shooting everywhere, and inside the Space Shuttle Challenger sat Sally Ride — about to become the first American woman ever to travel to space!

Sally wasn't always a space explorer. As a kid in California, she LOVED playing tennis and was actually good enough to become a professional player! But science called to her even more. She studied physics (that's the science of how everything in the universe works) and became super smart about lasers and space stuff.

When NASA said they needed new astronauts — including women for the first time ever — Sally applied along with 8,000 other people. Guess who got picked? That's right!

During her six days in space, Sally had some seriously cool jobs. She used a giant robot arm to grab satellites floating in space — imagine playing the world's most expensive video game, except it's REAL! She also ran science experiments and took amazing photos of Earth from 200 miles up.

💡 Sally Ride was so good at tennis as a teenager that tennis legend Billie Jean King encouraged her to turn professional — but Sally chose science instead!