Pin, Ninety-Nines (and case), Sally Ride

This Ninety-Nines pin was owned by Dr. Sally K. Ride. The pin's design consists of two interlocking, square-cut nines with a propeller superimposed in the center. The Ninety-Nines is an international organization founded in 1929 for the mutual support and advancement of female pilots. At the time of the club's founding, there were only 117 licensed female pilots, 99 of whom accepted the invitation to become charter members, hence the club's name. The Kentucky Blue Grass Chapter of the Ninety-Nines presented Ride with a silver cup which is also in the collection.

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 pin to the Museum in 2013.