NASA’s STS-7 mission carried Sally Ride, the first American woman in space.
STS-7 launched the space shuttle Challenger on June 18, 1983. Sally Ride served as a mission specialist on the five-person crew, becoming the first American woman to fly in space and the third woman overall, after Soviet cosmonauts Valentina Tereshkova and Svetlana Savitskaya.
The mission lasted 6 days, 2 hours, 23 minutes, and 59 seconds. The crew deployed the Anik C2 and Palapa-B1 communications satellites and operated the first Shuttle Pallet Satellite. Challenger returned to Edwards Air Force Base on June 24, 1983.
STS-8, which followed in August 1983, carried Guion Bluford, the first African American in space. STS-41-G later included Kathryn Sullivan, who became the first American woman to perform a spacewalk. Those milestones are distinct from Sally Ride’s first American female spaceflight.