Sally Ride: “That moment of ignition,” she said, “there’s absolutely nothing like it”
Astrophysicist who joined Nasa and in June 1983 became the first US woman astronaut to go into space
As a Californian schoolgirl Sally Ride seemed destined for a career as a professional tennis player, indeed, she was urged to pursue her talent for the sport by Billie Jean-King. Instead she hit the headlines around the world in a rather different manner, by becoming the first American woman in space.
Ride was a crew member on the space shuttle Challenger that was launched on June 18, 1983. She was 32 and the youngest American in space as well as the first woman. The following year she took part in a second shuttle mission and later was the only person to sit on both the panels that investigated the shuttle disasters of 1986 and 2003.
Sally Kirsten Ride was born in 1951 in Los Angeles. At school she excelled in science and maths, but at Stanford University it looked as if it was her ability on the tennis court that would determine her career. She graduated in physics and English in 1973, then took a masters in physics and a PhD in astrophysics in 1978.
While completing her PhD she saw a newspaper advertisement placed by Nasa inviting applications to join the space programme. There were more than 8,000 applications, but Ride was selected as one of 35 new astronauts, including six women, to undergo training. Until then astronauts had usually been military test pilots, and this marked a concerted effort to recruit scientists and engineers.
Ride’s training included learning to pilot jets at high altitude, parachute jumping, water survival and learning to cope with weightlessness. Eventually, she was selected for Challenger mission STS-7 in the summer of 1983. On the five-day mission, the crew conducted experiments and deployed satellites.
She returned to space on Challenger mission STS-41G in October 1984. This time the voyage lasted eight days and experiments were conducted which proved beneficial in studying the atmosphere. It gave Ride a lasting interest in enviromental issues.
She was due to make a third Challenger mission in 1986 but the programme was halted after the shuttle exploded soon after take-off in January of that year. Ride was selected to sit on the panel that investigated the disaster — a role she reprised after the crash of the shuttle Columbia in 2003 — and became known for her uncompromising questioning of witnesses.
She left Nasa in 1987 and worked at Stanford University and at the University of California, San Diego. In 2003 she formed her own company, Sally Ride Science, which had as its principal aiming encouraging schoolchildren, especially girls, to study science and engineering. She wrote seven science books for children, one of which included advice for making a sandwich in space.
She gave many interviews promoting her work and recalled her space missions, and especially the launches, fondly. “That moment of ignition,” she said, “there’s absolutely nothing like it.”
She married a fellow astronaut, Steven Hawley, in 1982. They were divorced in 1987 and she is survived by her partner Tam O’Shaughnessy.
Sally Ride, astronaut, was born on May 26, 1951. She died of pancreatic cancer on July 23, 2012, aged 61
Naval officer who displayed calm authority in command of Ascension Island during the Falklands conflict
Bob McQueen was Commander British Forces Ascension Island during the Falklands conflict in 1982, a task that demanded enormous military, organisational and diplomatic skills.
At a Ministry of Defence meeting McQueen was assured that tri-service numbers on the island would not be more than 200 and that he would have the power of veto on anyone sent there. “Both these resolutions were broken within a fortnight,” he wrote later. Personnel reached a peak of 1,400; £16 million of freight and 6,000 passengers arrived by air to the Wideawake airfield which on one day became the busiest airport in the world. Including huge numbers of helicopter lifts, it logged more movements than Chicago O’Hare. As professional aviators, McQueen, with Lieutenant-Colonel William Bryden USAF, would not compromise flight safety and, remarkably, only one “reportable incident” of a minor nature occurred.
The Task Force had sailed in a hurry and it soon became apparent that a forward logistics base, halfway but still 3,300 miles from the Falklands, would be vital to success. Huge quantities of stores, extra ammunition, more helicopters, spares and last-minute operational modifications to equipment all had to be catered for. Assault ships had to be re-stowed and “combat loaded”. Some ships had arrived overloaded, some empty. Many merchant ships taken up from trade required modifications and logistic support.
The Task Force’s strategy was to recapture South Georgia, to defeat or neutralise the Argentine Navy and to reduce the threat from the Argentine Air Force before a landing could take place. This meant that Ascension was also host to large numbers of soldiers who needed practice in disembarking in the dark, fully loaded, from unfamiliar ships as well as fitness exercise and weapon practice ashore.
The legal situation was often misunderstood. The United States had acquired the use of Ascension — and other islands — under Second World War lease-lend arrangements. A series of agreements from 1956 were governed by a “note” of 1962 which obliged the Americans to grant “such logistic, administrative or operating facilities at the Airfield . . . as necessary for use by UK military aircraft”, which in the light of what happened was a prudent piece of drafting.
Normal traffic at Wideawake was two or three aircraft a fortnight, servicing the Nasa and Cable and Wireless staff and the local population. Thus the stress on local facilities was enormous and McQueen was warm in his praise for the support of the Resident Administrator, the people of the island and the communications agencies.
With a mixture of charm and fierceness, he managed many competing interests: “There was only one war but a lot of organisations wanting to get their oar in,” he said. One RAF chaplain arrived, assured that a chaplain was needed. “Far from the case,” McQueen said, “we already have six and the Bishop of St Helena. But you can hump stores if you like.” He became known as Captain One In-One Out in his control of numbers.
Besides submarine satellite communications and Sidewinder air-to-air missiles, American support included an aviation fuel ship permanently attached to the offshore buoy and pipeline — British engineers laid more than three miles of pipe from the “tank farm” to the airfield — and a vital reverse-osmosis fresh-water generator as well as many folding huts, known as “Cardboard City”.
Other issues that McQueen had to deal with were the threat of an Argentine special forces or submarine attack and, as the campaign progressed, the support and repatriation of wounded survivors and the correct treatment of prisoners of war, including Lieutenant-Commander Alfredo Astiz, wanted by a French court for the murder of two nuns.
A considerable challenge was the RAF’s attack by Vulcan bomber on Port Stanley airfield, an astounding feat of airmanship requiring 11 Victor tanker aircraft and two Vulcans, integrated into a complex refuelling plan. Parking space at Wideawake was just adequate, as was the fuel supply. The bombs dropped on this operation had a deterrent, psychological effect rather than any denial of the airfield’s use.
McQueen made sure that withdrawal from Ascension was made with proper ceremony and gratitude. He was appointed CBE for his service during the conflict.
Robert McQueen was born in 1934 and joined the Navy as a National Service Ordinary Seaman in 1952 with a place to read history at St Edmund Hall, Oxford which he gave up when he was selected for officer training. He initially served in motor torpedo boats and the frigate Whirlwind.
When second in command of the inshore minesweeper Inglesham, he received a phone call telling him that he had been selected for the Royal Yacht Britannia. Suspecting a spoof, he was sharply told that this was his Admiralty appointer speaking and he was needed now. He looked at his uniforms, sullied by minesweeping, and threw them away, visiting Gieves for new ones. Then followed the 1956-57 world cruise and the Melbourne Olympics.
After flying training, he became an all-weather night-fighter pilot, flying Sea Venoms in the carrier Centaur in the Far East and Sea Vixens in Hermes. His qualities were recognised by an appointment on the staff of the naval college at Dartmouth in 1962, after which he was senior pilot of 899 Squadron in the Eagle before commanding his own squadron, 893, in the Hermes. He was described as the “complete squadron commander in all respects whose skill in flying is matched by his leadership”. McQueen flew 24 types of aircraft, making 664 day and 129 night deck landings.
Promoted to commander, he was in charge of Fleet Air Arm pilot training before captaining the frigate Salisbury. Promoted to captain at the early age of 39, he was naval assistant to the Navy’s chief of personnel, commanded the frigate Diomede and served as deputy director of naval administrative planning. In 1979 he commanded the air station at Portland which won the annual Wilkinson Sword of Peace competition.
After Ascension, he commanded the Broadsword and the 2nd Frigate Squadron and was noted for his outstanding ability to get the best out of his captains and their people, having an excellent sense of humour, total honesty and high moral standards — “a gentle mentor and a safe harbour for junior officers”.
After the Navy, McQueen held directorships in Flight Refuelling, Alan Cobham (Engineering), British International Helicopters and Serco. For eight years from 1995 he was general secretary of the charitable Royal Naval Association and was on the council of King George’s Fund for Sailors. He was a Nautical Assessor to the House of Lords and vice-chairman of the British Limbless Ex-Servicemen’s Association. When he began to suffer from Parkinson’s, he greatly enjoyed classes for sufferers run by the English National Ballet and joined the Westminster Community Choir.
He is survived by his wife, Nadya Kissaun, and their son and daughter.
Captain Robert McQueen, CBE, Commander British Forces, Ascension Island, 1982, was born on February 8, 1934. He died on June 27, 2012, aged 78
