Dr. Sally Ride is a former NASA astronaut and the first American woman in space. She is a Professor of Space Science at the University of California at San Diego. Dr. Ride received her BS in Physics, BA in English, MS and Ph.D. in Physics from Stanford University. Her first spaceflight was aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger in 1983. Her second was also aboard the Challenger in 1984. During those flights Dr. Ride deployed communications satellites, operated the robot arm and conducted experiments in materials, pharmaceuticals, and Earth remote-sensing. Training for her third spaceflight was interrupted by the Space Shuttle Challenger accident. Dr. Ride served as a member of the Presidential Commission investigating the accident and chaired its subcommittee on Operations. She then served as NASA's first director of Strategic Planning. Dr. Ride spent two years at Stanford University's Center for International Security and Cooperation. In 1989 she became the Director of the University of California's California Space Institute, and joined the UCSD faculty. She is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, member of the National Research Council's Space Studies Board and has served on the Boards of the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment and the Carnegie Institution of Washington and the President's Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology. Dr. Ride has written four science books for children: To Space and Back; Voyager; The Third Planet, and The Mystery of Mars.