When Gloria Steinem Interviewed Sally Ride In 1983

In 1983, Sally Ride because the first American woman to fly in space. She was preceded way back in 1963 by Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, but many Americans saw Ride's trip as the major milestone. Furthermore, American media asked Ride a lot of dumb questions about how she could handle space, being, you know, a woman.

Gloria Steinem sat down with Ride in 1983 for the interview below, exploring both the dumb media questions (what makeup would she bring to space?!) and Ride's path to the astronaut program. Enjoy this animated version of the interview:

If you stick around to the end, you'll catch Ride's predictions on what would happen by the year 2001. For a full transcript, extra interview snippets, a list of real questions asked by the media (!), and more, check out this Blank on Blank page about her.

A version of this story ran in 2016; it has been updated for 2021.