Every year at the Wright Brothers Memorial on December 17, the First Flight Society recognizes someone whose contributions to flight have captured our imaginations and and made a significant impact.
The selection of Dr. Sally Ride, Phd, this year was an inspired choice.
Ride, the first American woman to fly into space had a remarkable career. She was a scientist, astronaut, author of children’s books…and she even took a couple of years off from academia to pursue a professional tennis career.
Rid first flew into space on June 18, 1983 on board the Space Shuttle Challenger and then returned to space in 1984, As a mission specialist her job on her first shuttle flight was placing satellites in orbit. On her second mission she successfully used the robotic arm to to remove ice from the shuttle's exterior and make an adjustment to the radar antenna.
After the Challenger then Columbia disasters, she served on commissions looking at what happened and made recommendations to prevent a recurrence.
After her career at NASA she became the director of the California Space Institute at the University of California, San Diego, and professor of physics. In 2001 she founded Sally Ride Science. Affiliated with UC San Diego, the organization’s goal is to level the playing field for all students, but especially girls and minority students, in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) subjects.
Although she died from pancreatic cancer in 2012, her legacy is extraordinary and her induction into the Paul E. Garber Shrine at the Wright Brothers Memorial is truly deserved.
This weekend is also the annual visit of the Candy Bomber, the C54 transport plane that dropped chocolate by parachute the the children of Berlin during the Berlin Airlift in 1948.
Any time of the year there is lots to do on the Outer Banks. Stop by for a visit and plan your stay in a Brindley Beach Vacations home.