1. “Our future lies with today’s kids and tomorrow’s space exploration.” – Sally Ride
2. “My parents must have done a great job. Anytime I wanted to pursue something that they weren’t familiar with, that was not part of their lifestyle, they let me go ahead and do it.” – Sally Ride
3. “Rocket science is tough, and rockets have a way of failing.” – Sally Ride
4. “Then during the mission itself, I used the space shuttle’s robot arm to release a satellite into…” – Sally Ride
5. “The view of earth is absolutely spectacular, and the feeling of looking back and seeing your planet as a planet is just an amazing feeling. It’s a totally different perspective, and it makes you appreciate, actually, how fragile our existence is.” – Sally Ride
6. “We need to make science cool again.” – Sally Ride
7. “The best advice I can give anybody is to try to understand who you are and what you want to do, and don’t be afraid to go down that road and do whatever it takes and work as hard as you have to work to achieve that.” – Sally Ride
8. “The stars don’t look bigger, but they do look brighter.” – Sally Ride
9. “It takes a couple of years just to get the background and knowledge that you need before you can…” – Sally Ride
10. “I do a lot of running and hiking, and I also collect stamps – space stamps and Olympics stamps.” – Sally Ride
11. “The most anxious time was during launch, just because that is so dramatic.” – Sally Ride
12. “I can’t remember a single time [my parents] ever told me not to do something I wanted to do.” – Sally Ride
13. “Science is fun. Science is curiosity. We all have natural curiosity. Science is a process of…” – Sally Ride
14. “I suggest taking the high road and have a little sence of humour and let things roll off your back. I think that’s very important.” – Sally Ride
15. “The rockets light! The shuttle leaps off the launch pad in a cloud of steam and a trail of fire.” – Sally Ride
16. “You know, I go around the country a lot.” – Sally Ride
17. “I find myself looking around for other new, interesting opportunities to dive into.” – Sally Ride
18. “Three Secrets to Success: Be willing to learn new things. Be able to assimilate new information quickly. Be able to get along with and work with other people.” – Sally Ride
19. “I don’t have any nicknames.” – Sally Ride
20. “For a long time, society put obstacles in the way of women who wanted to enter the sciences.” – Sally Ride
21. “On both of my flights, everything went very well.” – Sally Ride
22. “Well, we spend an awful lot of our time working and doing experiments. It’s very busy up on the shuttle.” – Sally Ride
23. “I think it’s important for little girls growing up, and young women, to have one in every walk of life. So from that point of view, I’m proud to be a role model!” – Sally Ride
24. “All adventures, especially into new territory, are scary.” – Sally Ride
25. “Some astronauts sleep in sort of beds – compartments that you can open up and crawl into and then close up, almost like a little bedroom.” – Sally Ride
26. “The thing I’ll remember most about the flight is that it was fun. In fact, I’m sure it was the most fun that I’ll ever have in my life.” – Sally Ride
27. “Because I was a tennis player, Billie Jean King was a hero of mine.” – Sally Ride
28. “It’s too bad our society isn’t further along.” – Sally Ride
29. “I had both male and female heroes.” – Sally Ride
30. “I’ve spent my whole life not talking to people, and I don’t see why I should start now.” – Sally Ride
31. “I didn’t really decide that I wanted to be an astronaut for sure until the end of college.” – Sally Ride
32. “I liked math – that was my favorite subject – and I was very interested in astronomy and in physical science.” – Sally Ride
33. “The fact that I was going to be the first American woman to go into space carried huge expectations along with it.” – Sally Ride
34. “For quite some time, women at NASA only had scientific backgrounds.” – Sally Ride
35. “If it wasn’t for the women’s movement, I wouldn’t be where I am today.” – Sally Ride
36. “When you can feel that close to something you’re used to seeing from this great distance, well, it changes a person.” – Sally Ride
37. “But when I wasn’t working, I was usually at a window looking down at Earth.” – Sally Ride
38. “It’s no secret that I’ve been reluctant to use my name for things.” – Sally Ride
39. “If we want scientists and engineers in the future, we should be cultivating the girls as much as the boys.” – Sally Ride
40. “No, I think most astronauts recognize that the space shuttle program is very high-risk, and are prepared for accidents.” – Sally Ride
41. “I would like to be remembered as someone who was not afraid to do what she wanted to do, and as someone who took risks along the way in order to achieve her goals.” – Sally Ride
42. “We can see cities during the day and at night, and we can watch rivers dump sediment into the ocean, and see hurricanes form.” – Sally Ride
43. “Ever been to Disneyland? That was definitely an E ticket!” – Sally Ride
44. “I’ve spent my whole life not talking to people, and I don’t see why I should start now.” – Sally Ride
45. “The best advice I can give anybody is to try to understand who you are and what you want to do, and don’t be afraid to go down that road and do whatever it takes and work as hard as you have to work to achieve that.” – Sally Ride
46. “I was always very interested in science, and I knew that for me, science was a better long-term career than tennis.” – Sally Ride
47. “So I saw many planets, and they looked just a little bit brighter than they do from Earth.” – Sally Ride
48. “I haven’t written my memoirs or let the television movie be made about my life.” – Sally Ride
49. “When you’re getting ready to launch into space, you’re sitting on a big explosion waiting to happen.” – Sally Ride
50. “Yes, I did feel a special responsibility to be the first American woman in space.” – Sally Ride
51. “Different astronauts sleep in different ways.” – Sally Ride
52. “So most astronauts are astronauts for a couple of years before they are assigned to a flight.” – Sally Ride
53. “I’ve discovered that half the people would love to go into space and there’s no need to explain it to them. The other half can’t understand and I couldn’t explain it to them. If someone doesn’t know why, I can’t explain it.” – Sally Ride
54. “It’s easy to sleep floating around – it’s very comfortable. But you have to be careful that you don’t float into somebody or something!” – Sally Ride
55. “Rocket science is tough, and rockets have a way of failing.” – Sally Ride