CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Sally Ride, the first U.S. woman to travel into space and an advocate for science education, died on Monday after a 17-month battle with pancreatic cancer, according to her organization, Sally Ride Science. She was 61.
Ride broke new ground for American women in 1983 when at the age of 32 she and four male crewmates blasted off aboard space shuttle Challenger.
"The fact that I was going to be the first American woman to go into space carried huge expectations along with it," Ride recalled in a 2008 interview on the 25th anniversary of her flight.
"I didn't really think about it that much at the time -- but I came to appreciate what an honor it was to be selected," she said.
U.S. President Barack Obama called Ride "a national hero and a powerful role model." In a statement, he said Ride "inspired generations of young girls to reach for the stars."
Ride was not the first woman in space. That distinction fell to the Soviet Union's Valentina Tereshkova, who blasted off aboard a Vostok 6 rocket on June 16, 1963.
