PHOTOS: 35 Years Ago, Astronaut Sally Ride Became the First American Woman in Space

Thirty-five years ago Monday, NASA astronaut Sally Ride became the first American woman in space.

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Astronaut Sally Ride floats on the Challenger flight deck.
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Sally Ride is pictured with NASA's first female astronaut candidates in Florida in 1978.
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Astronaut Sally Ride, exits the Shuttle Mission Simulator following a training session in the Johnson Space Center’s Mission Simulation and Training Facility.
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Astronaut Sally Ride is pictured with a set of tools on space shuttle Challenger. Her shirt features the acronym TFNG, which stands for thirty-five new guys in reference to the astronaut class of 1978.
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Sally Ride is pictured with her mission crewmates. Front row, left to right: Ride, Commander Bob Crippen, Pilot Frederick Hauck. Back row, left to right: John Fabian, Norm Thagard
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Sally Ride and her crewmates rocket skyward aboard Challenger at 7:33 a.m. EDT on June 18, 1983.
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Astronaut Sally Ride in pictured June 15, 1983 three days before her flight aboard space shuttle Challenger. She is in the cockpit of a T-38 jet.
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Sally Ride takes her seat aboard the space shuttle.
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Astronaut Sally Ride is pictured aboard Challenger.
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Flowers are placed at the Sally Ride Memorial Tree at Johnson Space Center in Texas after the astronaut's death July 23, 2012.
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Astronaut and scientist Sally Ride is pictured at the Sally Ride Science Festival at NASA's Ames Research Center.
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