Blut Dot 49: Dr. Sally Ride

Being an astronaut is synonymous in our culture with being a hero. And there are a few that are household names, like John Glenn or Neil Armstrong. But perhaps none of them had as much of an impact on our society and NASA itself as the first American woman in space - Sally Ride. After her 1983 flight on the space shuttle Challenger, she became one of the most famous people in the world, and yet, she was also an intensely private person, her sexual orientation only becoming widely known after her death in 2012. Former ABC News reporter Lynn Sherr covered the space program during the early space shuttle era and became good friends with Ride. Her biography, Sally Ride: America's First Woman in Space is an in-depth look at the astronaut, scientist and human being.