This Space Shuttle Columbia sweatshirt was owned by Dr. Sally K. Ride. Columbia was the first space-rated shuttle in NASA's orbiter fleet, and its first mission, STS-1, launched in 1981. Ride, who was an astronaut candidate recruited specifically for the Space Shuttle program, watched the first launch with excitement from the backseat of a T-38 training jet. In over 22 years of service, Columbia flew 28 space missions, but on its last mission in 2003 it disintegrated during atmospheric reentry.
Sally Ride became the first American woman in space when she flew on the shuttle mission 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. 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 left NASA in 1987, Dr. Ride taught first at Stanford and later at the University of California, San Diego, where she also served as the director of the California Space Institute. Until her death in 2012, she was president and CEO of Sally Ride Science, a company she founded to promote science education.
Dr. Ride’s partner, Dr. Tam O’Shaughnessy, donated the sweatshirt to the Museum in 2013.
This object is not on display at the National Air and Space Museum. It is either on loan or in storage.