Google's tribute to Sally Ride, the first US woman in space

Google’s doodle for Tuesday pays tribute to Sally Ride on her 64th birthday. Ride, besides being the first American woman in space (and the youngest American at 32), also became the director of the California Space Institute and professor of physics at the University of California, San Diego, after she left the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa). 
 

In a guest blog written for Google, her life-partner Tam O’Shaughnessy mentioned that Ride was committed to motivating young girls towards pursuing careers in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math).
 

O’Shaughnessy added that Ride, after her two space missions aboard the Challenger, had come to realise “how important it is for all of us to take care of our fragile home in space, and became an environmentalist”.
 

Ride, who was a physicist, passed away in July 2012, after a 17-month battle with pancreatic cancer.
 

The Google Doodle put Sally Ride at the top of  Google searches, with more than 500,000 searches as of 12 pm IST. The animated doodle was created by Olivia Huynh and Nate Swinehart.