A Closer Look at Sally Ride’s Flight Jacket
Astronaut Sally Ride’s flight jacket helps tell her groundbreaking spaceflight story.
By Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum
Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum
Dr. Sally K. Ride's Flight JacketSmithsonian's National Air and Space Museum
Dr. Sally K. Ride
During her time at NASA, Ride and other astronauts wore this style of bright blue jacket to work or for public appearances.
If you take a closer look, Ride’s flight jacket helps tell her groundbreaking story of spaceflight.
Below the NASA logo is Ride’s leather nametag. The nametag shows the mission on which Ride earned her astronaut wings, STS-7 in 1983.
While more formal here, Ride chose to go with just "Sally" on her lighter blue in-flight suit.
This round patch signified that Ride was one of 35 astronauts selected for the first Space Shuttle group in 1978.
Guy Bluford, the first African American in space, and Ellison Onizuka, the first Asian American in space, were also in this group.
Look closely and you'll see the mission patch for Ride’s second trip to space on the sleeve of this jacket, STS-41G in 1984—the first mission to include two women, Ride and Kathryn D. Sullivan. On that mission, Sullivan became the first female American to do a spacewalk.
