Button, STS 61-C, Columbia, Sally Ride

This STS 61-C button was owned by Dr. Sally K. Ride. STS 61-C was the last shuttle mission before the Challenger disaster, which occured just ten days after its landing. Steven A. Hawley, Ride's husband at the time, was a Mission Specialist on the flight.

Sally Ride became the first American woman in space when she flew aboard STS-7 in 1983. Her second and last space mission was STS 41-G in 1984. A physicist with a Ph.D., she joined the astronaut corps in 1978 as a part of the first class of astronauts recruited specifically for the Space Shuttle Program. Viewed as a leader in the NASA community, she served on the Rogers Commission after the Challenger disaster in 1986 as well as the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) in 2003. She also led the task force that produced a visionary strategic planning report in 1987 titled, “NASA Leadership and America’s Future in Space,” but known popularly as the Ride Report.

After she retired from NASA in 1987, Dr. Ride taught first at Stanford and later at the University of California, San Diego. Until her death in 2012, she was president and CEO of Sally Ride Science, a company that promoted science education.

Dr. Ride’s partner, Dr. Tam O’Shaughnessy, donated the button to the Museum in 2013.