Pennant, Stanford, Sally Ride

Dr. Sally K. Ride flew this Stanford University pennant on the STS-7 space shuttle mission in 1983, when she became the first American woman in space. Her undergraduate education began at Swarthmore College in 1968, but she left as a sophomore to try becoming a professional tennis player. She returned to her studies in 1970 at Stanford in her home state of California, having decided to pursue a career in science instead. She graduated with distinction, receiving a B.S. in physics and B.A. in English, and she stayed at Stanford to earn a Ph.D. in physics in 1978. Dr. Ride’s partner, Dr. Tam O’Shaughnessy, donated this pennant to the Museum in 2013.

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 tragedy 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. From 2001 until her death in 2012, she was president and CEO of Sally Ride Science, a company she founded to promote science education.