USA’s first space woman to speak

Sally Ride

Former astronaut Sally Ride, who was America’s first woman in space, will present "Reach for the Stars" as part of the Distinguished Speaker Series at 8 p.m. Tues, Nov. 5 in the Kavli Theatre at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza, 2100 Thousand Oaks Blvd.

In her presentation, Ride will share "spectacular" film footage that she took on her two trips in space to illustrate "her deeply personal vision of the mysteries of the universe."

The Encino native, educated at Stanford University, applied to the space program after reading about NASA’s call for astronauts in the mid-1970s. Among the 8,000 applicants, 35 were accepted, and Ride was among the six women accepted. She made two flights on the space shuttle Challenger, worked in mission control and produced a seminal report on the future of the space program titled "Leadership and America’s Future in Space."

Ride is the author of four books relating to space exploration and is currently professor of physics at the University of California, San Diego. She is also the founder and CEO of Imaginary Lines, Inc., a company dedicated to supporting girls interested in science, math and technology.

At the conclusion of her talk, the audience may participate in a question and answer session moderated by a talk radio host.

Individual tickets to Ride’s talk are not available. Attendance is through purchase of subscription packages ($175-$280) for the speakers’ series, which runs from November-May.

For more information, please call (805) 449-2775 or visit www.speakersla.com.