Sally Ride quotes

Sally Ride was an American astronaut and physicist, famous for being the first American woman in space. Her historic flight inspired generations of young people, especially girls, to pursue careers in science and exploration. She devoted much of her life to science education and promoting STEM opportunities for students. Here are 67 of her quotes:

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)
When you're getting ready to launch into space, you're sitting on a big explosion waiting to happen. View quote
Sally Ride
All adventures, especially into new territory, are scary. View quote
Sally Ride
On a standard space shuttle crew, two of the astronauts have a test pilot background - the commander and the pilot. View quote
Sally Ride
The stars don't look bigger, but they do look brighter. View quote
Sally Ride
When you're on Earth, if you go to the top of a mountain, the stars look much brighter than they do at sea level. And because the space shuttle is above Earth's atmosphere, it's like being on a very, very high mountain. So they look brighter, but not bigger. View quote
Sally Ride
There might be very primitive life in our solar system - single-cell animals, that sort of thing. We may know the answer to that in five or ten years. There is very likely to be life in other solar systems, in planets around other stars. But we won't know about that for a long time. View quote
Sally Ride
Science is fun. Science is curiosity. We all have natural curiosity. Science is a process of investigating. It's posing questions and coming up with a method. It's delving in. View quote
Sally Ride
It takes a few years to prepare for a space mission. It takes a couple of years just to get the background and knowledge that you need before you can go into detailed training for your mission. So most astronauts are astronauts for a couple of years before they are assigned to a flight. Once you are assigned to a flight, the whole crew is assigned at the same time, and then that crew trains together for a whole year to prepare for that flight. View quote
Sally Ride
The most anxious time was during launch, just because that is so dramatic. View quote
Sally Ride
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)
For quite some time, women at NASA only had scientific backgrounds. View quote
Sally Ride
Studying whether there's life on Mars or studying how the universe began, there's something magical about pushing back the frontiers of knowledge. That's something that is almost part of being human, and I'm certain that will continue. View quote
Sally Ride
The view of Earth is spectacular. View quote
Sally Ride
But when I wasn't working, I was usually at a window looking down at Earth. View quote
Sally Ride
I had both male and female heroes. View quote
Sally Ride
So I saw many planets, and they looked just a little bit brighter than they do from Earth. View quote
Sally Ride
Because I was a tennis player, Billie Jean King was a hero of mine. View quote
Sally Ride
Well, we spend an awful lot of our time working and doing experiments. It's very busy up on the shuttle. View quote
Sally Ride
But even in elementary school and junior high, I was very interested in space and in the space program. View quote
Sally Ride
I felt very honored, and I knew that people would be watching very closely, and I felt it was very, very important that I do a good job. (Sally Ride)
I slept just floating in the middle of the flight deck, the upper deck of the space shuttle. View quote
Sally Ride
NASA has to approve whatever we wear, so there are clothes to choose from, like space shorts - we wear those a lot - and NASA T-shirts. View quote
Sally Ride
It takes a few years to prepare for a space mission. View quote
Sally Ride
Yes, I did feel a special responsibility to be the first American woman in space. View quote
Sally Ride