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

Ironically, news of Ride’s death in La Jolla, Calif., 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 was on the commission that investigated that horrible accident as well as the commission that investigated the 2003 Columbia disintegration. She is the only person to have served on both panels.

Ride held a doctorate from Stanford University and was a professor of physics at UC San Diego. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, also a former astronaut, said Ride “broke barriers with grace and professionalism — and literally changed the face of America’s space program.”

That she did.

In her two flights aboard Challenger in 1983 and 1984, Ride logged 343 hours in space.

But in all that time with her head spent above the clouds, she always kept her feet planted firmly on the ground.

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

 

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