511911
Sally K. Ride
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Sally Kristen Ride, Ph. D., 1951–. NASA astronaut, 1979-1986; Special Assistant to the NASA Administrator, 1986-1987. Official NASA lithograph portrait boldly inscribed and signed Reach for the stars! / Sally K. Ride.
Ride, who holds a doctorate in physics, was the first American woman to fly in space. She flew two space shuttle missions and was training for a third when the Challenger explosion grounded the shuttle fleet.
On June 18, 1983, Ride was launched into space along with four other crew members on the second flight of the Challenger. It was the first shuttle mission with a five-person crew. During more than six days in space, the crew deployed satellites and conducted numerous experiments. The next year, Ride served as a mission specialist on STS 41-G, which launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on October 5, 1984, with a seven-person crew. The eight-day mission deployed another satellite and conducted scientific observations of the Earth.
Ride was training as a mission specialist on STS 61-M but stopped to serve as a member of the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident. Once the investigation was over, she was assigned to NASA Headquarters as Special Assistant to the Administrator for long range and strategic planning. She left NASA in 1987, teaching first as a Science Fellow at Stanford University and then as a physics professor at the University of California, San Diego.
Ride has received the National Spaceflight Medal twice and was inducted into Astronaut Hall of Fame at Kennedy Space Center on June 21, 2003. She has received many other awards, including the Jefferson Award for Public Service and the Women’s Research and Education Institute’s American Woman Award.
This photograph is absolutely pristine. Ride has inscribed and signed it with a black felt-tipped pen.
Unframed.
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