Kristen Stewart to play Sally Ride in limited series ‘The Challenger’

Kristen Stewart is taking on the role of Sally Ride.

The actress will make her TV debut by portraying the famous astronaut in Prime Video’s upcoming limited series The Challenger, ABC Audio has confirmed.

The Challenger is created by Golden Globe winner Maggie Cohn. She also writes, executive produces and showruns the program, which is inspired by Meredith E. Bagby’s 2023 book The New Guys. James Hawes, who has worked on Slow Horses and Black Mirror, will direct and executive produce the show. Kyra Sedgwick, Stewart and Bagby also executive produce.

The series follows “the gripping story of one of the most defining moments in space history, both the unprecedented events leading up to the tragedy, and the shocking investigation that followed,” according to Prime Video.

“As the members of the 1986 Rogers Commission interrogate the complex inner workings of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to find what, or who, was responsible for the Challenger’s doomed fate, the show explores Commission member Sally Ride’s personal journey,” its description continues. “We follow Sally, and the rest of the diverse Astronaut Class of ’78, through the ranks of the shuttle program, through initial recruitment and training, professional and personal highs and lows, until Sally’s historic glass ceiling moment as she becomes the first American woman in space.”

“There is no one better than Maggie Cohn to bring to life the complex story of the Challenger and the new class of astronauts recruited by NASA in the early 1970s, all through the eyes of an American hero, Sally Ride,” Sedgwick said in a press release.

Peter Friedlander, the head of global television at Amazon MGM Studios, said, “Sally Ride’s courage and brilliance changed history, and we couldn’t imagine a more powerful actor to bring her story to life than Kristen Stewart.”