the essays he wrote during this time can be found in
compilations such asHome Sweet Home,Dispatches
from the Sporting Life(2002), andBroadsides(1990).
Further Reading
Richler, Mordecai.Dispatches from the Sporting Life.
Guilford, Conn.: Lyons Press, 2002.
. “The Eighties: Decade in a Hurry.”Mac-
lean’s, December, 30, 1989.
.Home Sweet Home: My Canadian Album.New
York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1984.
Julie Elliott
See also Children’s literature; Literature in Can-
ada; Meech Lake Accord; Quebec English sign ban;
Quebec referendum of 1980.
Ride, Sally
Identification Scientist and pioneer in the U.S.
space shuttle program
Born May 26, 1951; Encino, California
Ride was the first American—and the world’s third—
female astronaut to fly in outer space. Only two other
women, Soviets Valentina Tereshkova and Svetlana
Savitskaya, preceded her.
In 1978, Sally Ride became one of six women in the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s
(NASA) eighth astronaut class. There was some ini-
tial animosity within the program when women were
chosen, but Ride found NASA’s attitude toward her
and her fellow female trainees straightforward.
Ride was involved in the first three flights of the
space shuttleColumbia. Her first assignment was as
mission specialist. Her tasks included working as
capsule communicator (capcom), the only person
on Earth allowed to talk directly to the space shuttle
crew during a mission. Ride was the first woman to
hold this position. She also participated in the devel-
opment of the remote manipulator system (RMS),
the robotic arm used on the space shuttle.
Ride’s rigorous training for space included run-
ning four miles a day, playing tennis and volleyball,
and weightlessness training. She also received train-
ing in all shuttle systems, including mechanical,
electrical, and propulsion. NASA believed that it was
important that each astronaut learn the tasks of the
other crew members, in case of an emergency.
On June 18, 1983, Ride became the first Ameri-
can woman in space while aboard the space shuttle
Challengeron mission STS-7. One of her jobs during
the six-day trip was to deploy two satellites into space
using the RMS. She also worked on forty experi-
ments, including studying the effect of weightless-
ness on carpenter ants.
Challengerreturned to Earth on June 24, 1983.
Ride received a lot of media attention before and af-
ter the historic mission. She also received a number
of honors and awards and even made a guest appear-
ance on the popular children’s television seriesSes-
ame Street.
As Ride was preparing for her third flight, the
shuttleChallengerexploded on January 28, 1986, kill-
ing all seven crew members on board. She was ap-
pointed to the Rogers Commission to investigate the
explosion. Following the tragedy and her work on
the commission, Ride decided that she was not readyThe Eighties in America Ride, Sally 829
Sally Ride.(National Aeronautics and Space Administra-
tion)