Sally K. Ride Papers

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The Sally K. Ride Papers consists of over 23 cubic feet of papers, photographs, certificates, and film, created or collected by Sally Ride and chronicling her career from the 1970s through the 2010s. The papers document Ride's lifetime of achievements and include material relating to her astronaut training and duties; her contributions to space policy; her work as a physicist; and her work as an educator, including Sally Ride Science and related STEM projects.

Dr. Sally K. Ride became a national icon of achievement in science and space on June 18, 1983, when she became the first American woman to fly in space. Born in 1951 in suburban Encino, California, she took up tennis as a teenager and within a few years was ranked eighteenth nationally. In 1968, she enrolled at Swarthmore College as a physics major, but she dropped out after three semesters to train full-time at tennis. In 1970, Ride gave up tennis and entered Stanford University, where she took a double major in physics and English literature. She went on to complete a Masters and Ph.D. in physics from Stanford. Her doctoral dissertation dealt with the theoretical behavior of free electrons in a magnetic field. While completing her Ph.D. in physics, she saw an announcement that National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was looking for young scientists to serve as mission specialists and she immediately applied. She passed NASA's preliminary process and became one of 208 finalists. Ride was flown to Johnson Space Center outside Houston for physical fitness tests, psychiatric evaluation, and personal interviews. Three months later, she was an astronaut and one of six women selected for the class of 1978. While learning to use a new space shuttle remote manipulative arm for a future mission, Ride acted as backup orbit Capsule Communicator (CAPCOM) for STS-2 and prime orbit CAPCOM for STS-3. She was named a mission specialist on the seventh flight of the Space Shuttle Challenger in 1983. As a mission specialist in the first five-member Shuttle crew, she operated a variety of orbiter systems and experiment payloads; she participated in the launch of two commercial communications satellites and also operated the remote manipulator system arm to maneuver, release, and retrieve a free-flying satellite. Ride also flew on a second mission, STS-41G in 1984, again on the Challenger. She spent a total of more than 343 hours in space. Ride's career and legacy extended well beyond her missions in space. Ride had completed eight months of training for her third flight (STS-61-M, a TDRS deployment mission) when the space shuttle Challenger disaster occurred, and she was named to the Rogers Commission (the presidential commission investigating the accident) and headed its subcommittee on operations. Following the investigation, Ride was assigned to NASA headquarters where she led a strategic planning effort for NASA that yielded the 1987 report NASA Leadership and America's Future in Space: A Report to the Administrator (also known as the Ride Report), and she served as the first chief of the new NASA Office of Exploration. In 1993, she was named to the Columbia Accident Board, appointed to investigate the causes and to recommend remedies after that tragic loss. In 1987, Ride left NASA to become a full-time educator. She first worked at the Stanford University Center for International Security and Arms Control and in 1989 she became a professor of physics at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and Director of the California Space Institute. From the mid-1990s until her death, Ride led two public-outreach programs for NASA — the ISS EarthKAM and GRAIL MoonKAM projects, in cooperation with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and UCSD. The programs allowed middle school students to request images of the Earth. Ride continued her endeavors to improve science education and encourage young people to study science through her independent initiatives as an author or co-author of seven books on space aimed at children, and as a co-founder of Sally Ride Science, a company founded in 2001 that creates entertaining science programs and publications for upper elementary and middle school students, with a particular focus on science education for girls. Ride died on July 23, 2012, at the age of 61, seventeen months after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

Identifier

NASM.2014.0025

Creator

Ride, Sally, 1951-2012

Date

1970-2012

Provenance

Gift of Tam O'Shaughnessy, received March 2014.

Extent

24 Cubic feet (63 boxes)

Archival Repository

National Air and Space Museum Archives

Related Materials

Ride's telescope from the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum collection: Ride's telescope, A20140273000. Columbia Accident Investigation Board badge from the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum collection: Columbia Accident Investigation Board badge, A20140211000. National Aviation Hall of Fame medal from the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum collection: National Aviation Hall of Fame medal, A20140233000. Flight jacket from the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum collection: Flight jacket, A20140331000.

Scope and Contents

The Sally Ride Papers reflect Ride's careers as a student, astronaut, physicist, professor, author, and CEO of Sally Ride Science. This collection consists of material gathered by Sally Ride over the course of her life. This material is particularly rich in training materials from her astronaut days, but also provides significant insight into her career in academia and her interest and support of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) education. The bulk of this collection consists of materials related to Ride's professional work. This includes correspondence, memoranda, meeting minutes, reports and papers, notes, speeches, photographs, brochures, pamphlets, programs, newsletters, newspaper and magazine articles, and miscellaneous materials. Materials of a personal nature were retained by her family and therefore do not figure in this collection.

Arrangement note

The collection is organized chronologically into the following 12 series: Series 1: Schooling Series 2: NASA Career Subseries 2.1: Training and Flights Subseries 2.1.1: T-38 Training Subseries 2.1.2: Space Shuttle Flight Training, General Subseries 2.1.3: STS-7 Challenger Flight Training Subseries 2.1.4: STS-41G Space Shuttle Challenger Flight Training Subseries 2.1.5: Miscellaneous Space Shuttle Flight Training Subseries 2.2: NASA Commissions and Reports Subseries 2.2.1: Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident (Rogers Commission Report) 1986 Subseries 2.2.2: NASA Leadership and America's Future in Space: A Report to the Administrator [Ride Report] 1987 Subseries 2.2.3: Columbia Accident Investigation Board / NASA's Implementation Plan for Space Shuttle Return to Flight and Beyond Report 2003 Subseries 2.2.4: Review of United States Human Space Flight Plans Committee (Augustine Committee) Subseries 2.3: White House Commissions and Reports Subseries 2.3.1: President's Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) Subseries 2.3.2: Briefing for the Vice President of the United States, 1986 Subseries 2.3.3: Briefing for the Clinton/Gore Transition, 1992 Series 3: Space.com Series 4: Academia Subseries 4.1: Physics Research Papers by Ride Subseries 4.2: Ride's Physics Research Proposals and Projects Subseries 4.3: Physics Research Files Subseries 4.4: Physics Classes Taught by Ride Subseries 4.5: Non-Physics Classes Taught by Ride Subseries 4.6: Physics Conferences and Seminars Subseries 4.7: Miscellaneous Department of Physics Materials Subseries 4.8: California Space Institute Series 5: Sally Ride STEM [science, technology, engineering and mathematics] Education Projects Subseries 5.1: KidSat/EarthKAM Project Subseries 5.2: Imaginary Lines/Sally Ride Science Subseries 5.3: STEM Books Series 6: Space and STEM Education Advocacy Subseries 6.1: Space Advocacy Subseries 6.1.1: Space Advocacy Articles Subseries 6.1.2: Space Advocacy Speeches Subseries 6.1.3: Space Advocacy Committees. Subseries 6.2: STEM Advocacy, Committees and Conferences Series 7: Awards and Publicity Subseries 7.1: Awards Subseries 7.2: Correspondence/Invitations Subseries 7.3: Boards Subseries 7.4: Publicity Files Series 8: Research Files Subseries 8.1: Space: Subseries 8.1.1: Space Articles, Reports, and NASA Publications Subseries 8.1.2: Space Files – Commission, Workshops, and Special Reports Subseries 8.2: Education Series 9: Miscellaneous Series 10: First Day Covers/Autographs Series 11: Oversized material Series 12: Films, Audio Tapes, and Media

Rights

Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests.

Restrictions

No restrictions on access.

Citation

Sally K. Ride Papers, Acc. 2014-0025, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution.

Topics

Space shuttles
Science -- Study and teaching
Space Shuttle Remote Manipulator Arm
Manned space flight
Physics
Astronautics

Type

Collection descriptions
Archival materials

Visit

One museum, two locations

What's On

At the museum and online

Explore

Dive deep into air and space

Learn

For teachers and parents

Give

Be the spark