Miles O'Brien: Ride, Sally Ride

At the PBS Newshour website, a post by Miles O'Brien about one of his encounters with the late Dr. Sally Ride, the first American woman in space. He writes about the night of January 28, 2003, when Dr. Ride knocked on the door of his house in Atlanta. She was one of the guests of honor at his home that night to celebrate the opening of a new Challenger Learning Center. And at the time, Miles (then a reporter with CNN) had just closed a deal with NASA to become the first journalist in space, on a forthcoming shuttle mission. Snip:

I normally do not ask people for autographs or inscriptions, but on this night I made an exception. I handed her my copy of the book, and she wrote: "Hope you're the first journalist in space!"

Nice words from someone who knows what it means to be first.

While she was signing, and we were celebrating, the STS-107 crew was orbiting a few hundred miles over our head-- unaware of the fatal breach in the reinforced carbon heat shield on the leading edge of Columbia's wing.

In four days, everything would change for the people in my house that night. Columbia, of course, did not make it home. Sally Ride would soon be serving on her second commission investigating the loss of a space shuttle and its crew.

Read the rest: Ride, Sally Ride: My Dinner with the First American Woman in Space (PBS NewsHour)

Update: Here's a video segment from tonight's show, with Miles talking with Judy Woodruff about Dr. Ride's legacy. Alternate [YouTube Link].

• [Little]

  Did anyone else see the space-themed book & and the inscription to Miles O’Brien, and assume Sally Ride autographed a book for actor Colm Meaney? :)

  Meaney played a man named Miles O’Brien on two Star Trek series, so that’s an appropriate name for a real-life space journalist!

  • [The Rizz]

    That was also my first thought.

  • [RedShirt77]

     I know what the Chief looks like and that isn’t him.

• [MrLibearian]

  I just found out Sally Ride was a lesbian.  It would have been amazing to know this growing up as a gay kid.

  • [Ladyfingers]

     I’m sad to only find this out in the comments section of a site.

    • [The Rizz]

      It’s headlining on major news sites, now. (USA Today, MSN, etc.)

      • [Ladyfingers]

         Yep, just reading now.  But I found out here.

• [RedShirt77]

  Who are these astronauts that are only in it for the thrill?  I want names.

• [Nagurski]

  What about the first astronaut, Laika? She never gets mentioned much, and she died on her mission.