Coleman sits in the rear seat of a supersonic T-38 jet for pilot training as a newly minted NASA astronaut candidate in 1992. NASAOn the day of Sally Ride’s talk, I hurried into 10-250, the large lecture hall beneath the Great Dome that is the emblem of MIT. By the time I got to MIT, in 1979, only six women had been selected as NASA astronauts. But seeing Sally Ride on the stage that day turned a possibility into a reality—a reality that could include me. In her quiet, matter-of-fact way, Sally Ride shattered assumptions I didn’t know I’d taken on.