Sally Ride, trailblazing Shuttle astronaut, dies at 61

Sally Ride, the first female American in space, has died at the age of 61 after a 17-month battle with pancreatic cancer. Ride was born on May 26, 1951 in Encino, California, where she spent her childhood. An athletic child, she was a competitive tennis player even at a young age, but she also always loved math and science, …

[jake]

Fare well, fair Lady.

Condolences to Tam and the rest of her nearest & dearest.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Fare well, fair Lady.

Only 63, just goes to show how vulnerable we are no matter who you are, such a young age for someone.

[jake]

Re: Fare well, fair Lady.

My fanboi downvoted THAT post?

Oh my ...

[Michael H.F. Wilkinson]

Sad news

I was very sorry to hear this news. She was an inspiration for many women to join in in the fun that is science and technology.

I will raise a glass to her memory this evening

[krza]

Ride Sally Ride

Grew up knowing anything was possible, for anyone, in good measure because of her. Sympathies.

[Destroy All Monsters]

Always loved her Ellen Ripley 80's hairstyle.

Also reminds me of the old times when the USA still had some hope of growing up in style. We didn't know the truth about what horrible things were going down even back then but who would have foreseen the full-scale devolution into the ridiculous corporatist-socialist-imperialist-warfare state that we have now, with a droning harpie and black narcissus as figureheads?

I will be at the pub.

[Trollslayer]

Re: Always loved her Ellen Ripley 80's hairstyle.

We mourn the loss of someone who cared for an inspired others and you turn it into a cheap shot.

Crawl back into the bottle.

[The last doughnut]

Re: Always loved her Ellen Ripley 80's hairstyle.

Not my pub I hope.

RIP.

[Andus McCoatover]

She sure had "the right stuff"

So relatively young...Sad.

[Fred Flintstone]

Well, obviously..

.. if she was involved in designing the robot arm she would have to be in arms control later.

61 is early, though.

[Just a geek]

She had no role in the design of the robot arm. That was built in canada and it was Julie Payette that had most invovlement.

Sally rides death is another terrible blow to the shuttle programme which itself is now dead.

[Grumpy tech]

Men die too, you know

Sure, it's sad when anyone passes before their time, but this is only getting such wide media coverage because she was a woman.

First American woman in space? How ridiculously sexist!

[Peter Simpson 1]

How ridiculously sexist!

You must be a "glass half empty" kinda guy.

//RIP, Dr. Ride

[Stefing]

Re: Men die too, you know

I believe that she was also a gay lady - or is it heterophobic to mention that?

[Trollslayer]

A sad loss

She inspired others - what are we without dreams?

RIP Sally.

[Jude Bradley]

Fare well, fair Lady.

Upvoted again for ya!

[Steven Jones]

Pancreatic cancer in the news...

Three very recent deaths in the news - Sally Ride, Jon Lord and Angharad Rees. All pancreatic cancer, a disease for which has a very poor prognosis and the known risk factors are limited. Of course it's just a statistical coincidence, but as it killed my cousin at a relatively young age a couple of years ago, it does make me wonder if it's on the increase (now the fourth most common cause of cancer-related deaths in the world).