‘People didn’t like women in space’: how Sally Ride made history and paid the price

Sally Ride shattered the glass ceiling as the first American woman in space, but a new National Geographic documentary reveals the personal sacrifices she made—including hiding her queer identity—to navigate a prejudiced system. The timing of the film’s release is striking, as it coincides with the Trump administration’s rollback of NASA’s diversity initiatives, underscoring how far we’ve come and how much progress remains fragile.