Decal, Canadarm, Sally Ride

This Canadarm decal was owned by Dr. Sally K. Ride. A large artificial arm used to lift payloads into orbit and retrieve them, it was named Canadarm because it was Canadian-built, but it was also known as the Remote Manipulator System (RMS). Ride worked on developing the simulations for the RMS as well as its ground testing. After training extensively on its complex operations, she was selected as Capcom at Mission Contro in Houston for STS-2, the first mission to test the RMS in space. Her expertise was also a factor in her selection to the crew of STS-7 in 1983, which was the first misison to use the RMS to release and retrieve a payload.

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 decal to the Museum in 2013.