Another icon of flight

Another icon of flight

San Jose Mercury: Another of America’s pioneering heroes has fallen victim to pancreatic cancer. Just last fall, it was digital pioneer Steve Jobs. On Monday, it was America’s first woman in space, astronaut Sally Ride.

Ironically, news of Ride’s death in La Jolla, Calif., on Monday reached us the day before what would have been the 115th birthday of another American aviation pioneer - Amelia Earhart, the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean, which earned her the prestigious U.S. Distinguished Flying Cross. She famously disappeared over the Pacific Ocean in 1937 in an attempt to circumnavigate the globe.

Ride was no less a trailblazer. She became the first of 43 American women in space as she flew aboard the space shuttle Challenger in 1983.

Yes, the same shuttle that met a tragic end three years later, blowing up off the coast of Florida minutes after takeoff.

Ride wrote five science books for children and was president of her own company, Sally Ride Science. Through it, she left a lasting legacy for America’s middle school children. Sally Ride Science was the driving force behind mounting cameras on NASA’s twin Grail spacecraft, which, among other things, allows middle school students to take their very own pictures of the moon. That is pretty darn cool.

A grateful nation will miss her calm and quiet leadership. Godspeed, Sally Ride.

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