Plaque, Key to the City of Cocoa Beach Florida, Sally Ride

The Key to the City of Cocoa Beach Florida was presented to Dr. Sally K. Ride on August 29, 1984. Cocoa Beach is approximately twelve miles south of Kennedy Space Center and is a popular location for watching launches. The inscription says that Ride "owes us a landing." Ride's 1983 mission, STS-7, was planned to be the first to land at the Kennedy Space Center's Shuttle Landing Facility. However, unfavorable weather conditions forced a change in landing location to Edwards Air Force Base. The plaque makes reference to this when it states, "you get the flights, we'll get the weather." Ride's second mission, STS 41-G, landed as planned at Kennedy Space Center.

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 key to the Museum in 2013.