Sally Ride EarthKAM Lifts Off on First Mission

The Sally Ride EarthKAM will embark on its first mission with its new name next week. The EarthKAM, which has produced more than 52,000 digital images of the Earth, was recently renamed after the late Sally Ride, a La Jollan and the first American woman in space.

On Wednesday, a group of middle school students from across the world will operate the camera aboard the International Space Station and capture images of the earth’s surface. The images are used in class projects in earth science, space science, geography, social studies and more. The camera was previously named the International Space Station EarthKAM.

NASA recognized Ride’s role in establishing EarthKAM in 1995, during a National Tribute to Sally Ride at the Kennedy Center in May.

“EarthKAM perfectly embodies Sally Ride’s legacy,” says Dr. Karen Flammer, space physicist at UCSD, a co-founder of Sally Ride Science, and Director of EarthKAM in an announcement. “With each EarthKAM mission, thousands of kids, everywhere from California to Romania, get a chance to control a piece of the ISS. This experience can instill a passion for science that goes beyond classroom work, exciting the kind of passion that is essential to keeping kids engaged in STEM throughout their school years and beyond.”

Ride became the first American woman to travel in space on June 18, 1983, while aboard the space shuttle Challenger. She flew aboard the shuttle Challenger twice, and was assigned to a third when the program was placed on hold after Challenger exploded shortly after launch in January 1986.

Ride served on the presidential commission that investigated the explosion.

She left NASA in 1987, and joined the faculty at UCSD as a professor of physics and director of the California Space Institute two years later.

She founded San Diego-based Sally Ride Science in 2001 to encourage youngsters to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and math.

Ride died in La Jolla last July 23 following a 17-month battle with pancreatic cancer. She was 61.

The Sally Ride EarthKAM is a NASA program administered by Sally Ride Science and operated by UC San Diego.

—CNS contributed to this report.