Sally K. Ride
Description
This STS-61C pendant was owned by Dr. Sally K. Ride. During STS-61C, Charles Bolden became the first African-American to pilot the space shuttle. Steven A. Hawley, Ride's husband at the time, was a Mission Specialist on the flight, which also included Congressman Bill Nelson, the second sitting politician to fly in space. STS-61C was the last shuttle mission before the Challenger disaster in January 1986, which occured just ten days after its landing. Having mission patch memorabilia available as necklace pendants in addition to lapel pins acknowledged the presence of (and interest by) women in the program.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...
Gift of Tam O'Shaughnessy
