This NASA Week of Remembrance pin was owned by Dr. Sally K. Ride. The design incorporates elements from the emblems of the three NASA missions that ended in tragedy. The three lost spacecraft are pictured on the pin, with their names also along the bottom edge, and the seventeen men and women who gave their lives in these accidents are each represented by a star near their spacecraft. The Greek sigma in the center previously appeared on the NASA Mission Control emblem and symbolizes the large team responsible for the safety of human space flight. The red vector bisecting the sigma is taken from the NASA logo. The Latin phrases along the top translate, "To the stars through adversity. Always exploring." The design for this pin was created by Bill Foster in the Ground Control Office at the NASA Johnson Space Center and Michael Okuda, Scenic Art Supervisor and Technical Consultant for Star Trek.

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 science education.

Dr. Ride’s partner, Dr. Tam O’Shaughnessy, donated the pin to the Museum in 2013.