Dr. Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, has died of pancreatic cancer at the too-young age of 61. If you can’t quite recall these things, she flew aboard space shuttle Challenger on only its second mission in 1983, and again on Challenger in 1984. She was scheduled for a third flight, but that was scuttled following the Challenger disaster in ’86. She served on the presidential commission that investigated that accident, then retired from NASA in ’87. She was subsequently recalled from academia to serve on the board that investigated the loss of space shuttle Columbia in 2003.

She’s often called a role model for girls (for understandable reasons), but I have to say this boy always considered her a hero as well, right up there with all the male astronauts, as she deserved. It’s a shame kids today are more likely to look up to the Kardashians than a woman — than a person — like this. A brave and determined person who championed education and science and did her best to push back the frontier — all sorts of frontiers — just a little more for the rest of us.

Goddamn cancer. It’s getting personal now.