Sally Ride was not selected because she was a woman. She was selected because she was a Stanford physicist with a doctorate in 1978, the year NASA finally opened the astronaut corps to scientists and engineers—not just military test pilots. On June 18, 1983, twenty years to the day after Tereshkova’s launch, Ride became the first American woman in space aboard Challenger on STS-7. The mission was the most complex shuttle flight to date: two commercial satellite deployments, the first shuttle pallet satellite retrieval using the robotic arm, and a five-person crew—then the largest ever flown. Ride operated the Remote Manipulator System and helped deploy the SPAS-01 satellite, which photographed Challenger in orbit for the first time. She flew again in 1984 on STS-41G. After the Challenger accident, she served on the Rogers Commission—the only person to serve on both the Challenger and Columbia accident investigation boards. She later founded Sally Ride Science to inspire girls in STEM. She died in 2012, her partner of 27 years at her side.