Helmet, Aviator, Sally K. Ride

This aviator helmet belonged to Dr. Sally K. Ride, who became the first American woman in space when she flew on the STS-7 shuttle mission in 1983. As a scientist astronaut rather than a pilot, Ride trained for flight in the backseat of a Northrop T-38 training jet, learning navigation and communication procedures. This is one of the helmets she wore on those flights. She so enjoyed the experience of flying that she took private lessons and earned her pilot license. Dr. Ride’s partner, Dr. Tam O’Shaughnessy, donated this helmet to the Museum in 2013.

A physicist with a Ph.D., Sally Ride joined the astronaut corps in 1978 in the first class of astronauts recruited specifically for the Space Shuttle Program. Her second and last space mission was STS-41G in 1984. Viewed as a leader in the NASA community, she served on the Rogers Commission after the Challenger accident in 1986 as well as the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) in 2003. She also led the task force that produced a visionary strategic plan in 1987, titled “NASA Leadership and America’s Future in Space,” known popularly as the "Ride Report." After she left NASA in 1987, Dr. Ride taught first at Stanford and later at the University of California, San Diego, where she also served as the director of the California Space Institute. From 2001 until her death in 2012, she was president and CEO of Sally Ride Science, a company she founded to promote science education.