Medal, Palapa Satellite, Sally Ride
name: label: Owner
content: Sally K. Ride
notes: label: Summary
content: This Palapa B1 Satellite medal was owned by Dr. Sally K. Ride. Palapa is the name for a series of communication satellites owned by Indosat, an Indonesian telecommunication company. The B1 was deployed in 1983 during STS-7, the space shuttle mission in which Ride became the first American woman in space.
label: Summary
content: A physicist with a Ph.D., Ride joined the astronaut corps in 1978 as a part of the first class of astronauts recruited specifically for the Space Shuttle Program. Her second and last space mission was STS-41G in 1984. 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.
label: Summary
content: 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.
label: Summary
content: Dr. Ride’s partner, Dr. Tam O’Shaughnessy, donated the medal to the Museum in 2013.
place: label: Country of Origin
content: United States of America
setName: label: See more items in
content: National Air and Space Museum Collection
label: Location
content: National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC
label: Exhibition
content: One World Connected
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Tam O'Shaughnessy
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Air and Space Museum
identifier: label: Inventory Number
content: A20140260000
objectType: label: Type
content: MEMORABILIA-Events
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: CC0
physicalDescription: label: Materials
content: Copper Alloy
label: Dimensions
content: Overall: 6 × 0.3cm, 0.7kg (2 3/8 × 1/8 in., 1.5lb.)