Sally Ride

We went to hear Sally Ride speak on campus last night, it was a good presentation, mostly about how astronauts view the earth from space, complete with slideshow.  It was a bit dumbed-down for all the non space geeks in the audience, the word "Orbiter" was never used, in favor of "Space Shuttle", for example.  She did take questions at the end of her speech, and I think I was the only one who asked a good one, since most of the other people asking questions were 10 years old. :) Here's what I asked (here with less stammering):  "There's been some discussion in the media recently about the future of the Hubble Telescope, and the administrations decision to not send future missions to service it due to the risk.  As someone who's served on both [the Challenger and Columbia] accident investigation boards, and as someone who has faced those risks herself, do you think the science being done by Hubble is worth the risk of human life to continue it?"

Dr. Ride's answer (not verbatim):  Yes, it's worth it.  The decision not to continue with Hubble is a bad decision, and the information that we're getting from it is well worth the risk.