Pin, Norsk Astronautics, Sally Ride

This Norsk Astronautisk Forening (Norweigan Astronautical Society) pin was owned by Dr. Sally K. Ride. The society was founded in 1951 for the purpose of disseminating knowledge about space and space travel in Norway, and it is a member of the International Astronautical Federation (IAF). Ride, whose mother had Norweigan heritage, may have acquired the pin when she visited Norway on the publicity tour through Europe that followed her STS-7 flight. She also attended that year's IAF meeting in Budapest.

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.