Sally Ride, the first US woman to travel into space, has died aged 61, 17 months after she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

She blasted off in the US space shuttle Challenger in June 1983.

Since her first mission in 1983, more than 45 women from the US and other countries have flown in space, including two as shuttle commander.

Once an aspiring tennis player, she went on to earn no fewer than four university degrees including a doctorate in physics.