RIP Sally Ride. She was a personal inspiration as a child because I saw a woman going into space as an indication of the opening up of space to 'normal' people. She was also a scientist and not a military person.

> "I saw a woman going into space as an indication of the opening up of space to 'normal' people."

This is one area where the Soviets had us beat:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentina_Tereshkova

Um, no. Valentina was the first woman in space in 1963. However, the Russians didn't fly another woman in space for the next 20 years, not until we flew Sally Ride. We've flown a female astronaut almost every year since, they've flown one. The full count is: US, 45 female astronauts, Russia/SU: 3.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_female_astronauts

To this day the Russians still have a superstition that flying with a woman is bad luck, and many of them refuse to fly with one.

thus, "had" us beat rather than "have" us beat.

This last part is one of the main reasons she was an inspiration to me during my childhood as well. I didn't have enough context to note that her gender did in fact matter, but she spent a great deal of time in educational outreach.

Sally Ride comes out as a lesbian in her obituary: http://www.buzzfeed.com/chrisgeidner/first-female-us-astrona...