Sally Ride: 1951-2012

Dr. Sally Ride, the first U.S. woman in space, died July 23, 2012, after a 17-month battle with pancreatic cancer at her home in La Jolla, Calif. She was 61.

At left: Dr. Ride is seen on the flight deck of the space shuttle Challenger on June 18, 1983.

Ride was a physicist when she answered a NASA ad seeking applicants for the space program. At the age of 32, Ride both blazed a trail for female astronauts and became the then-youngest American astronaut when she blasted off on the Space Shuttle Challenger in 1983.

Left: STS-7 mission specialist Sally Ride, prior to taking off from NASA's Houston facility bound for Kennedy Space Center in Florida, June 15, 1983. The T-38 jet was piloted by astronaut Robert L. Crippen, the commander of the STS-7 mission.

From left are Shannon W. Lucid, Margaret Rhea Seddon, Kathryn D. Sullivan, Judith A. Resnik, Anna L. Fisher, and Sally K. Ride. NASA selected all six women as their first female astronaut candidates in January 1978, allowing them to enroll in a training program that they completed in August 1979.

Ride first became an astronaut candidate in 1978, and she served both on the ground and in space in a variety of missions and capacities until she joined the faculty at UC San Diego in 1989, where she was a Professor of Physics and Director of the University of California's California Space Institute.

Astronaut Sally K. Ride, STS-7 mission specialist, stands in the mid-deck of the orbiting Space Shuttle Challenger, June 21, 1983.

"The thing that I will remember most about that flight is that it was fun, and I am sure it is the most fun that I will ever have in my life," Ride said once.

Dr. Sally Ride, the first U.S. woman to travel into space, speaks to the media at the San Diego Aerospace Museum Feb. 7, 2003, in San Diego, Calif.

Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, is shown talking with members of the Nevada Women's Fund in Reno, Nev., May 13, 2003.

NASA astronaut Sally Ride poses in June 1983 in Johnson Space Center, Houston. Ride became the first American woman in space as a crew member on Space Shuttle Challenger for STS-7 mission, on June 18, 1983.

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Former Astronaut Sally Ride speaks to members of the media as NASA personnel set-up astronomy equipment on the South Lawn of the White House in preparation for an event with the president and the first lady, in Washington on Oct. 7, 2009.

NASA astronaut Robert Crippen, center of first row, the Space Shuttle Challenger crew commander, poses in January 1983 in Johnson Space Center, Houston, with his crew members: Astronauts Frederick Hauck, right, Shuttle pilot; Sally Ride, left; and mission specialists John Fabian and Norman Thagard.

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In this June 1983 file photo provided by NASA, astronaut Sally K. Ride, STS-7 mission specialist, communicates with ground controllers from the mid-deck of the earth-orbiting Space Shuttle Challenger.

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In this June 1983 photo released by NASA, astronaut Sally Ride, a specialist on shuttle mission STS-7, monitors control panels from the pilot's chair on the shuttle Columbia flight deck.

Astronaut Sally K. Ride floats freely on the flight deck on June 21, 1983. The STS-7 mission specialist was one of five astronauts on Challenger's second orbital mission.

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Former astronaut Dr. Sally Ride, with Jeffrey Greason in the background, comments during a public meeting of the Review of U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee, in League City, Texas, on July 28, 2009.

NASA astronaut Sally K. Ride, the Space Shuttle Challenger crew member, poses in January 1983 in Johnson Space Center, Houston.

Astronaut Sally Ride, right, and tennis champion Billie Jean King arrive at the California Museum for History, Women and the Arts to be inducted into the California Hall of Fame in Sacramento, Calif., on, Dec. 6, 2006.

Astronauts Kathryn Sullivan, left, and Sally Ride are seen aboard the Challenger in October 1984. Ride's second flight aboard the shuttle was as a member of the STS-41G mission.

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Astronaut Sally Ride poses at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Caneveral, Fla., on Aug. 29, 1983.

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This undated photo released by NASA shows astronaut Sally Ride. Ride, the first American woman in space. Ride died July 23, 2012, after a 17-month battle with pancreatic cancer. She was 61.

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This undated file photo released by NASA shows astronaut Sally Ride, the first American woman in space.

For years after pioneering ride, Ride gave many speeches about the thrill of space travel.

"The moment of ignition, there is absolutely nothing like it. There is so much power, so much thunder, you know that something that you have no control over at all is happening for the next 8-and-a-half minutes," Ride said once.