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Journalism of Courage
Today’s Google Doodle celebrates the 64th birthday of Sally Ride, the first American woman to go into Space on June 18, 1983. She also remains the youngest American in space. Google has five different kinds of animated doodles, and you need to refresh the homescreen to see all five.
Google has even created a video explaining the significance of the doodle and gives a sneak peak into the life of Sally, who has continued to inspire, future astronauts, young science students in the US.
The doodle was created artist by Olivia Huynh and animator Nate Swinehart did the Behind the Doodle video as well, which is narrated by Huynh.
Google also has a special blogpost by Tam O’Shaughnessy, Sally Ride’s life partner and co-founder & CEO of Sally Ride Science. Tam worked with Google to help create the doodles and in the post she discusses Sally’s life, her flight aboard the space shuttle Challenger, and her passion for helping kids stay excited about science and technology.
Tam O’Shaughnessy writes, “As the first American woman in space, Sally Ride—who would have been 64 today—captured the nation’s imagination as a symbol of the ability of women to break barriers. But her historic flight represented just one aspect of a remarkable and multifaceted life. She was also a physicist, a science writer, and an inspirational advocate for keeping kids excited about science as they go through school.”
Sally was born on 26 May 1951, was a national level tennis player and did her PhD in physics at Stanford University. She applied for a NASA ad looking for astronauts in 1977, recounts Tam’s post and the rest is history.
Sally also wrote books for about Earth’s changing climate and after she left NASA she became a professor of physics at the University of California, San Diego. She died on July 23, 2012, from pancreatic cancer.
In the end of her blogpost. Tam O’Shaughnessy quotes Sally Ride,
Everywhere I go I meet girls and boys who want to be astronauts and explore space, or they love the ocean and want to be oceanographers, or they love animals and want to be zoologists, or they love designing things and want to be engineers. I want to see those same stars in their eyes in 10 years and know they are on their way!
All the five Google Doodles for today
Watch video of how the Doodle was made (App users click here)
