Sally Ride broke through a NASA ceiling 40 years ago, but she wasn’t alone

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — Sally Ride was the first American woman in space when she rode on Space Shuttle Challenger from KSC’s Launch Complex 39-A on June 18, 1983. She broke barriers, but she wasn’t alone. She was among six women named in 1978 as part of NASA Astronaut Group 8, all mission specialists. Ride was the first, but all six women from that class made it to space including Anna Fisher, who became the first mom in space when she launched on her lone mission aboard Space Shuttle Discovery in 1984. “I was assigned to my flight two weeks before my daughter was born,” Fisher said duri...