Pennant, Swarthmore, Sally Ride

This Swarthmore College pennant was flown on STS-7 by Dr. Sally K. Ride. Ride began her undergraduate studies at Swarthmore in 1968, where she declared a major in physics and joined the field hockey and tennis teams. Ride was exceptionally skilled at tennis, twice winning the Eastern Collegiate Championship. After three semesters at Swarthmore, she left to explore the possibility of becoming a professional tennis player. When she returned to her studies in 1970, having decided to focus on a career in physics instead, it was at Stanford University in her native state of California.

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-41G 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 pennant to the Museum in 2013.