10 Ways Star Trek Changed People's Lives
8. The First Female Astronaut
Despite the fact that three women of colour worked with NASA to win the Space Race in the 1960s, there were no female astronauts in space until Sally Ride in the 1980s. Whilst Star Trek: The Original Series wasn't always as progressive in its gender politics as its racial ones, it still played a pivotal role in Sally Ride's career.
Following her role as Uhura, Nichelle Nichols would often discuss the lack of diversity at NASA when visiting conventions. One of these speeches attracted the attention of the Space Agency's officials, and Nichols was invited to help them increase the diversity of their space shuttle programme. Nichols' work led to the hiring of five women, including Sally Ride.
After years of training, Ride first travelled into space on the Challenger in 1983. Her first mission was to assist in the launch two commercial satellites, and she continued to work with NASA until 1987. Years later, she attended the premiere of Star Trek: Voyager's feature-length pilot, The Caretaker. She was presented with a communicator badge by Kate Mulgrew.
It was a small gesture to acknowledge Ride's historic success, and emphasised the point that, 12 years later, a Star Trek series was to be led by a woman.