To Space & Back ***Signed***

Ride, Sally

ISBN 10: 0688061591 / ISBN 13: 9780688061593

Published by Morrow/Avon, New York, NY, U.S.A., 1986

About this Item

Signed "Sally K Ride" on title page in black ink. This book was personally signed by Dr. Ride on March 09, 2002 at Vroman's Bookstore in Pasadena, California USA. Sally Kristen Ride (May 26, 1951 ? July 23, 2012) was an American physicist and astronaut. Born in Los Angeles, she joined NASA in 1978 and became the first American woman in space in 1983. Ride was the third woman in space overall, after USSR cosmonauts Valentina Tereshkova (1963) and Svetlana Savitskaya (1982). Ride remains the youngest American astronaut to have traveled to space, having done so at the age of 32.[1][2] After flying twice on the Orbiter Challenger, she left NASA in 1987. She worked for two years at Stanford University's Center for International Security and Arms Control, then at the University of California, San Diego as a professor of physics, primarily researching nonlinear optics and Thomson scattering. She served on the committees that investigated the Challenger and Columbia space shuttle disasters, the only person to participate on both.[3][4] Ride died of pancreatic cancer on July 23, 2012.

Seller Inventory # 002814

Bibliographic Details

• Title: To Space & Back ***Signed***
• Publisher: Morrow/Avon, New York, NY, U.S.A.
• Publication Date: 1986
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0688061591
• ISBN 13: 9780688061593
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Printing: 1st Printing
• Condition: Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Fine
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)

About this title

Synopsis

Much has been written about the vast scientific importance of space exploration, but very little about the human side of being a m,ember of an astronaut crew. In this book, with the help of journalist Susan Okie, Sally Ride shares the personal experience of traveling into space.

Astronauts live, sleep, eat, and work in conditions totally unlike anything we know here on Earth. Everything they do is affected by weightlessness. The simplest of daily routines, such as preparing meals or getting dressed, is a challenge to human ingenuity. Astronauts live and work as members of a team -- each a highly trained expert in a particular field. The cheerful enthusiasm with which they adapt to the special environment of space is testimony to their total commitment to their work.

Written especially with a young audience in mind, To Space and Back answers questions frequently asked by space enthusiasts of all ages. It also reveals that the remarkable men and women who have chosen to pioneer the frontiers of space are first and foremost unique individuals -- like all of us.

About the Author

Susan Okie has known Sally Ride since they were students together at Westlake School. She remembers her as a "fleet-footed fourteen-year-old with a self-confident grin" who was her academic rival. They have remained close friends, even though their lives have taken them in different directions. Susan Okie also attended Swarthmore College and later went to Radcliffe, from which she graduated with a degree in biology. She received her M.D. from Harvard Medical School in 1978. She now works as a medical journalist for the Washington Post.