Thirty years ago, female astronaut Sally Ride took women to the stars in a way they never could have imagined.
Google decided to honor Sally Ride, the first woman to go into space, on Tuesday, May 26, 2015, with a Google Doodle.
However, one Doodle wasn't enough to honor the decisions that Ride made. So, Google worked with Ride's business and life partner, Tam O'Shaughnessy, to make five unique Google Doodles that accurately represented her life and goals.
Ride was born on May 26, 1951 in Los Angeles, California. Her parents taught her to love science, and provided her with a telescope and a chemistry set at an early age. Ride originally planned on pursuing tennis as a career, but she found that her love of science was more important to her.
Ride's journey into space began in 1977, during her Ph.D. studies. Sally was finishing her Ph.D. in physics at Stanford University when she learned that NASA was looking for astronauts - and for the first time was allowing women to apply. Sally sent her application in immediately, and was accepted. She was one of the first six women to become an astronaut. On June 18, 1983, Sally Ride soared into history as the first American woman in space.
After her landmark flight, Ride became a professor of University of California, San Diego and did her best to encourage girls and boys of every ethnicity to explore science and math. Ride went on to found Sally Ride Science, an organization that O'Shaughnessy says is designed "to create programs and publications that bring science to life and show young people that STEM is fascinating, creative, and fun."
Ride passed away on July 23, 2012, from pancreatic cancer.
Google posted a short video explaining the thought process behind the designs here.
