Google Doodle Celebrates Sally Ride’s 64th Birthday

Today, American astronaut Sally Ride would have have been 64 years old.

She died in 2012, but her work lives on as an inspiration to young women who want to touch the stars. Ride was indefatigable in promoting education, in promoting the need to explore space, and working to get girls more involved with science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. As the first American woman in space her place in history was secure, but she knew what this implied for her as a role model, and maximized that leverage.

Google has helped promote her message today in a series of lovely Doodles, animated images that come up when you open the home page of the search engine. This one is my favorite.

Rather self-explanatory, isn't it? There are five in total; refresh the Google home page to see them all.

Dr. Ride was immortalized when NASA named the GRAIL spacecraft impact site after her. But her legacy was secured by her own doing, by her actions. And we thank her for them.