# @nasa on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/4FYxYMoaFV
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/11737425-nasa-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/thumbnails/093eb490d7.jpg
- **Posted:** 2015-06-18T20:37:45.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** NASA (@NASA) — https://gondola.cc/NASA

## Caption

On this day in 1983, Sally Ride became the first American woman to fly in space when the space shuttle Challenger launched on mission STS-7 from Pad 39A at our Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This high-angle view of the shuttle liftoff, showing a lengthy stretch of Florida Atlantic coastline and a number of large cumulus clouds, was photographed with a handheld 70mm camera by astronaut John W. Young, who piloted the Shuttle Training Aircraft (STA) for weather monitoring at launch and landing sites for STS missions.

The STS-7 crew consisted of astronauts Robert Crippen, commander, the first two-time space shuttle astronaut; Frederick H. Hauck, pilot; and three mission specialists -- Ride, John M. Fabian and Norman E. Thagard.

One of Sally Ride's jobs was to call out "Roll program" seven seconds after launch. "I'll guarantee that those were the hardest words I ever had to get out of my mouth," she said later.

Image Credit: NASA

#otd #tbt #throwbackthursday #sallyride #space #nasahistory #history #nasa

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## Tags

nasahistory, sallyride, otd, history, tbt, nasa, space, throwbackthursday

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