Space: Ready When You Are

In To Space & Back (Lothrop, Lee & Shepard; $14.95), a children’s book co- written by Sally Ride last year and published this month, the nation’s first woman astronaut tells her readers that all adventures are “scary.” After last January’s explosion of the space shuttle Challenger, Ride seemed to find the prospect of another shuttle assignment a bit too scary. A member of the commission that investigated the disaster, Ride declared in March that the shuttle was unsafe and that she would not board it again. Currently riding a desk at NASA, she said last week that she was ready for lifting off again. Why the change of heart? NASA has done a “real good job” redesigning and testing the rocket boosters that helped cause the accident, explained Ride. All the astronauts are now eager, she adds, “for one of us to get back into the space shuttle.”