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FILE - This undated photo released by NASA shows astronaut Sally Ride. Ride, the first American woman in space, died Monday, July 23, 2012 after a 17-month battle with pancreatic cancer. She was 61. (AP Photo/NASA, File)

FILE - In this July 28, 2009 file photo, former astronaut Dr. Sally Ride, with Jeffrey Greason in the background, comments during a public meeting of the Review of U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee, in League City, Texas. Ride, the first American woman in space, died Monday, July 23, 2012 after a 17-month battle with pancreatic cancer. She was 61. (AP Photo/Houston Chronicle, Brett Coomer, File) MANDATORY CREDIT AP PHOTO/HOUSTON CHRONICLE, BRETT COOMER.

FILE - In this June 1983 file photo provided by NASA, astronaut Sally K. Ride, STS-7 mission specialist, communicates with ground controllers from the mid-deck of the earth-orbiting Space Shuttle Challenger. Ride, the first American woman in space, died Monday, July 23, 2012 after a 17-month battle with pancreatic cancer. She was 61. (AP Photo/NASA, File)

FILE - In this Aug. 29, 1983 file photo, astronaut Sally Ride poses at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Caneveral, Fla. Ride, the first American woman in space, died Monday, July 23, 2012 after a 17-month battle with pancreatic cancer. She was 61. (AP Photo/Brian Russell, File)

FILE - In this June 1983 photo released by NASA, astronaut Sally Ride, a specialist on shuttle mission STS-7, monitors control panels from the pilot's chair on the shuttle Columbia flight deck. Ride, the first American woman in space, died Monday, July 23, 2012 after a 17-month battle with pancreatic cancer. She was 61. (AP Photo/NASA, File)

FILE - This undated file photo released by NASA shows astronaut Sally Ride. Ride, the first American woman in space, died Monday, July 23, 2012 after a 17-month battle with pancreatic cancer. She was 61. (AP Photo/NASA, File)

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Sally Ride, first US woman in space, dies at 61