Sally Ride becomes the first U.S. woman to go into space!
Where, according to Wikipedia, she also became the first woman to operate the space shuttle Challenger's robotic arm, using it to retrieve a satellite. So basically she got to play a super-epic scaled-up version of that stuffed animal claw game from the carnival in space. And got paid for doing so. No wonder every kid wants to be an astronaut.
Also, reporters at the time apparently saw nothing wrong with asking her dumbass questions like, "Will the flight affect your reproductive organs?"
Really, reporters? REALLY? You meet the first woman in the country to have a career piloting awesome space-robots, and all you can think to say to her is that idiotic string of words? You might as well have said, "Durr hurr hurr, yer a gurl! In space! Gurl in space funny! Durr hurr."
So here's to you, Sally Ride. You broke barriers, and you never once* punched out a stupid-question-asking 1980's reporter.
*That I know of, anyway.
Really? I didn't know about the reproductive organ question. I wonder if the very first human astronaut got that question, too.
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