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SAN DIEGO, California, Feb 7 (AFP) - The first American woman in space, astronaut Sally Ride, said Friday she was ready to blast into orbit on the next space shuttle mission despite last week's Columbia disaster.

"Every time the space shuttle goes up, I wish I was on it," said 51-year-old Ride who now works as a physics professor as the University of California at San Diego.

Ride made her pioneering space flight aboard the Challenger in June 1983, the space orbiter that went on to explode 90 seconds after takeoff less than three years later, killing the seven-person crew in the first shuttle tragedy.

Ride, who was on a commission which investigated the 1986 Challenger disaster, said she believed the space shuttle program was now safer than when she flew because it is "right on the edge of technology."

Ride told reporters at San Diego's Aerospace Museum that she was watching coverage of the Columbia's expected landing last Saturday when communication with the craft was lost for too long a time.

"I knew it would be a very bad day," she said as she attended a pre-planned festival aimed at spawning interest in space travel among girls.

Asked whether crew members tend to be nervous when the shuttle re-enters the earth's atmosphere -- the phase during which the Columbia broke apart -- she said the crew was well trained to deal with it.

"Astronauts have a very good appreciation for the precision needed in re-entry," she said.

Ride flew another mission on the Challenger again in 1984 but training for her planned third space adventure as cut short by the destruction of the spacecraft two years later.

On her missions, she was tasked with deploying communications satellites, operating the shuttle's robotic arm and conducting experiments with pharmaceuticals. 

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