Plaque, Newsweek, Space Woman Cover, Sally Ride

This plaque was presented to Dr. Sally K. Ride, the first American woman in space, by women who worked at NASA in the administrative section of the Astronaut Office. The plaque holds the Newsweek cover from June 13, 1986 showing Ride wearing her NASA flight suit as she prepares to "make history" on STS-7. The back of the plaque is inscribed, "To Sally-- We wanted you to know that we're proud of you, too!" and is signed by eighteen employees.

A physicist with a Ph.D., Ride joined the astronaut corps in 1978 as a part of 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 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 plaque to the Museum in 2013.