This Living Legacy Award was presented to Dr. Sally K. Ride by the Women's International Center in 1984. The organization was founded in 1982 with the mission to "acknowledge, honor, encourage, and educate women." When Ride became the first American woman in space during STS-7 in 1983, many women felt inspired by her accomplishments and viewed her as a role model. Reflecting on her own and other important "firsts" for women, Ride said, "There always has to be a first. And once that happens, society changes."

Sally Ride's 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 plaque to the Museum in 2013.