Sally Ride: The First American Female Astronaut in Space

In 1984, she again goes on a mission on the challenger on NASA's thirteenth shuttle mission. She is in training for her third mission on January 28, 1986, when this space shuttle challenger explodes during launch. Sally Wright was appointed to the Rogers Commission to investigate the cause of the explosion. On July 23, 2012, Sally Ride passes away at her home in La Jolla, California from pancreatic cancer,. She was only 61 years old. In 2013, Sally Ride was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama.