Kristen Stewart To Lead Limited Series About The First American Woman In Space

Though many of our most popular films about astronauts are about men, like the true stories behind "Apollo 13" and "The Right Stuff," there are some incredible women who have explored the cosmos, chief among them Sally Ride. Ride was the first American woman in space as one of the crew of a Challenger expedition to launch new satellites in 1983, and she went into space a second time on the Challenger in 1984, spending a total of around 14 days in orbit. She was a trailblazer who not only broke barriers in space travel but was an incredible mind, earning four different degrees from Stanford University, including a doctorate in physics. Though she retired from NASA in 1989 to pursue a career in academia, Ride held the unique distinction of being the only person to serve on the investigation boards for both NASA shuttle accidents, including the 1986 Challenger explosion. Sadly, Ride died in 2012 at the age of 61 from pancreatic cancer, but now her legacy will be given new life in the form of a limited series, starring Kristen Stewart as Ride herself. 

Deadline reports that Stewart will make her leading television series debut in "The Challenger," courtesy of Kyra Sedgewick's Big Swing Productions and Amblin Partners. While no channel or streaming home has been announced as of yet (though Amazon is allegedly in the running), the team behind the series hopes that it will be ready to air by 2026 in time for the 40th anniversary of the Challenger tragedy.

Stewart feels like a perfect pick for Ride, who was not only the first American woman to go into space but was also the first LGBTQ+ person to hit the stars, though she would not reveal her status as a queer woman until her death when her nearly three-decade romance with tennis pro Tam O'Shaughnessy was finally revealed in her obituary. (Ride was also previously married to astronaut Steven Hawley in the 1980s.) Stewart herself is openly LGBTQ and recently starred in the sweaty sapphic thriller "Love Lies Bleeding," which means that aspect of Ride's life may finally be presented publicly. 

The series will be written by Maggie Cohn, who will also serve as showrunner. She has previously worked on true story-inspired shows like "American Crime Story," "The Staircase," and "Narcos: Mexico," which also bodes well for "The Challenger." The series will be based on Meredith E. Bagby's book "The New Guys: The Historic Class of Astronauts That Broke Barriers and Changed the Face of Space Travel," which follows the 1978 class of astronauts to which Ride belonged. Along with Ride, the group included the first Black astronaut, the first Asian American astronaut, and a married couple, finally diversifying the astronaut field a bit from the all-white, all-male crews that had come before. 

Though Stewart has never lead a television series before, this feels like the perfect project for her to really sink her teeth into. She's done some absolutely amazing film roles and has a passion for Ride's story, according to Deadline, so here's hoping we get to see her bring the American hero to our TVs sometime soon.