Human Cost of Cancer: Remember Notable People Lost in 2012 - Slideshow

Sally Ride, an NASA astronaut who became the first woman in space in 1983, died July 23, 2012 after a 17-month battle with pancreatic cancer. She was 61 years old.

After serving on several space missions and a brief stint as a professor of physics at University of California San Diego, she established Sally Ride Science, an organization dedicated to encouraging girls to pursue science education careers.