The Sally's Night Celebration Guide contains information about Sally's Night, Sally Ride, and women in STEM, and features hands-on activities you can use to discover, celebrate, and share what about space and science brings you energy, passion, curiosity, and joy.

Whatever your passion, whoever you are - tell us how you are inspired, how you explore, and how you share space and science on social media using the hashtag #ShineLikeSally.

Celebration Guide in English

Guía de celebración en español

Celebrate Sally’s Night and dance along with us to our Sally’s Night playlist!

Learn about the contributions of women in STEM, past and present, from every U.S. state and territory in this interactive map.

The Sally's Night Virtual Exhibition features artifacts and archival materials representing the stories of women and underrepresented genders in STEM, submitted by Smithsonian Affiliates and other cultural organizations from across the United States.

Dr. Mae Jemison has earned many titles during her vibrant scientific career: engineer, doctor, Peace Corps officer, teacher, and astronaut. In 1992, Jemison became the first African American woman to travel in space. She flew on the Space Shuttle Endeavour and during the mission she conducted life science experiments.

Henrietta Swan Leavitt measured the brightness of variable stars over time. She became fascinated with how many variable stars she could find in the Magellanic Clouds. After many years studying these stars she discovered something called the period-luminosity relationship that unlocked a way for astronomers to calculate distances to other galaxies.

Dr. Lika Guhathakurta studies the Sun, how it works, and how it affects the solar system through space weather. She is a scientist, mission designer, instrument builder, director, manager, and teacher — sometimes all in a single day!

Mary Golda Ross (Cherokee) performed classified research on aircraft and rockets in Lockheed’s Skunk Works Division. She helped write NASA’s Planetary Flight Handbook, a guide to space travel in the solar system.

Alma Woodsey Thomas was a Washington, DC-based artist who was active in the 1960s and 70s. Her work was often inspired by current events, including the Apollo Moon landings.

Sharon Caples McDougle was the first Black woman at NASA to serve as a spacesuit technician and crew chief. She suited up Mae Jemison, and led the first all-women team of spacesuit technicians in support of the STS-78 mission.

Kalpana Chawla flew on STS-87, becoming the first Indian-American woman in space, and on STS-107, which ended in tragedy 20 years ago when Space Shuttle Columbia broke apart during re-entry and the crew was lost.

Nichelle Nichols played Lt. Uhura on Star Trek (1966). She was an inspiration to many, not just for her groundbreaking work on Star Trek but also through her work with NASA to recruit women and people of color to apply to become astronauts.

Jerrie Cobb was a pioneering aviator and participant in the Lovelace Women in Space program, a short-lived, privately-funded project testing women pilots for astronaut fitness in the early 1960s. She was also a successful barnstormer and ferry and corporate pilot, and served as a missionary pilot in the Amazon.