BREAKING NEWS: Sally Ride, first American woman to fly in space, dies from pancreatic cancer

NBC News.com ^

[Dysart]

Shero...I like it.

RIP and thanks for your bravery and spirit, Ms Ride.

[arderkrag]

The heroes of my era are going beyond the veil, one by one.

[Musketeer]

What an amazing spirit she had.

She showed everyone you can have great hair in space.

Godspeed Sally.

[ssaftler]

she was the first gay astronaut.

She was gay? Wow. I can never remember it being mentioned when she was active in the space program, or after she retired.

Not that it mattered or should have mattered...

[Morgana]

I remember her going into space. Had no idea she had cancer. RIP

[Moonman62]

Had no idea she had cancer.

Pancreatic cancer is usually fatal in a short period of time. By the time it's discovered, it's spread throughout the body.

[Musketeer]

First GAY in space? Why was it important for you to bring her sex life into a thread meant to pay respect. You really make me sick you sorry SOB. Begone with you.

[Cementjungle]

17 months is one heck of a fight when it comes to pancreatic cancer. She was a brave soul, and obviously a real fighter. I hope she rests in peace.

[BwanaNdege]

She inspired our 3rd daughter to apply for astronaut training. Alas, there were 30,000+ applications for a hundred or so openings and our daughter does not have her PhD.

Never-the-less she helped build a laboratory module that is now on the Space Station. And she is currently a systems engineer on the Orion Capsule!

Thank you, Sally Ride!

[patriot08]

Oh, no. Sally Ride. She was such a hero to me.

Rest in peace, brave lady

[kabar]

Why should it be a negative if in fact she was gay? It matters not the least to me. I just found it interesting when they listed her suvivors they mentioned her partner of 27 years along with her family members.

They may have just been business partners or more than that. You are the one with a problem.

[riri]

Yeesh, I have been hearing of many bouts of PC recently.

That said, my daughter got to meet her at ASU at a special spend the day with her kind of thing. I think she was about 9.

[dead]

Wow, that sucks. God bless her.

[dfwgator]

She never made it an issue, never tried to advance the agenda, so it won’t make any difference to me whom she lived with.

[QuestingElf]

I always think of her when I hear the line from the song “Mustang Sally,”
all you want to do is ride around Sally,
ride Sally Ride!

Oh, well, yet another person to be proud of
when we *had* a space program.

[Cementjungle]

That said, my daughter got to meet her at ASU at a special spend the day with her kind of thing. I think she was about 9

A big part of astronauts' lives are serving as "ambassadors" or mentors for the younger generations. Just meeting someone like that can change a kid's trajectory.

I was lucky enough to have had a 5 minute conversation with Alan Shepard a few months after his moonwalk... it was like getting injected with some sort of drug designed to make me more interested in science.

[Selene]

Sally Ride endorses Obama

October 29, 2008

[trailhkr1]

Yeesh, I have been hearing of many bouts of PC recently.

There has been speculation diet pop with asparatame is an issue. Researchers are finding people who drank a lot of diet soda's are coming down with PC at higher levels.

[GrouchoTex]

I was in a band in the late 80’s to mid 90’s that used to play that ( a bar band staple ) . Whenever we played in the Clear Lake area (NASA hdq., the audience would sing just a bit louder. Good stuff.

[Nowhere Man]

Sad. She graduated from CMU, where my father, sister and I went. My first nice car, my “ride,” I named “Sally” after her. Such an awesome woman.

Interesting "Burgh" connection there. BTW, Professor Randy Pausch from CMU passed away from the same disease too a few years ago.