USA DAWN: NEWS AND UPDATES

When Sally Ride died in 2012, her obituary noted a new fact that was widely picked up: that she was survived by her partner, Tam O'Shaughnessy. The first American woman in space suddenly became a more complicated figure. Now Lynn Sherr, a journalist and friend of Ride, has created a brilliant and eye-opening biography. Sherr's book,  Sally Ride: America's First Woman in Space , opens with an anecdote: She was at a school, and asked a classroom a simple question: Who was Sally Ride? The answers flooded back: The first woman on the moon? The first to step into space? A great scientist? One finally got it right: the first American woman to ride into orbit. It's easy to remember the firsts when it comes to space travel. There's Yuri Gagarin, Alan Shepard, Neil Armstrong, of course, and then there's Sally Ride, notable for being the first woman NASA sent up into space. Other than that, what's to know? It turns out, quite a lot. Indeed, the general ...