posted 12-22-2024 08:34 AM               

Space Cover 785: Ride, Sally, Ride

This week's Space Cover of the Week honors Dr. Sally Ride, the first American woman in space.

The top cover above is a First Day of Issue Cover (FDC) for the Sally Ride commemorative stamp of 2018. The other cover is an STS-7 mission emblem launch cover with the Ride stamp affixed, and canceled at Cape Canaveral, thus being an unofficial FDC.

Dr. Sally Ride became the first American woman, and third woman, in space on STS-7 in 1983 - twenty years after the first woman in space. As a Mission Specialist, Ride deployed three satellites using Challenger's robotic arm. She spent over 6 days in space on STS-7 and flew her second flight on STS-41G in 1984.

Shown above is a cover signed by Sally Ride for her STS-7 flight and a cover autographed by the entire STS-7 crew.

Dr. Ride was married to fellow astronaut Steven Hawley for 5 years. She died in 2012 at the age 61 and was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame and the Astronaut Hall of Fame, among many other honors and accomplishments.

Dr. Ride led the way for other American women to fly in space, with the other five women Astronauts of NASA Group 8 flying at least once and, as of February 2024, 59 American women have flown on orbital spaceflights. Also, as of early 2024, a total of 75 women have flown in space on orbital spaceflights. Other women have flown sub-orbital spaceflights, including one of Alan Shepard's daughters.

Here are autograph examples of the first two women in space: Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, who was the first woman in space in 1963, and was followed by Svetlana Savitskaya in 1982, who performed the first EVA by a woman.

If all goes well, a woman will be on a lunar flight and a woman later on the moon.

posted 12-23-2024 10:04 AM               

Regarding Savitskaya; it's well-known that, with Ride's assignment in 1982 to STS-7, the (then) Soviets quickly chose Savitskaya, daughter of an army general and an accomplished aerobatic pilot, to fly on a Soyuz to a Salyut station to claim that the second woman in space would also be Russian. Similarly, Savitskaya was recruited again to fly in 1984 and perform her EVA, months before Dr Kathryn Sullivan did the same on STS-41G/Challenger (on which crew also included Ride). Savitskaya and Ride later met at a space conference in the Eastern Bloc, with Ride slipping away from her NASA 'handlers' lest her meeting with the cosmonaut cause any problems. As recounted in the book "The Six," they, not surprisingly, found much common ground in their experiences despite language and cultural barriers, and they parted with a warm embrace.

posted 12-23-2024 12:47 PM               

In regards to seeing other U.S. astronaut postage stamp issues, I would agree, and feel strongly that John Glenn should have his own stamp image like Ride and Shepard. Glenn was a true American hero as a celebrated fighter, combat, and test pilot, first American to orbit the earth, corporate leader, U.S. Senator for 24-years, a presidential candidate at one time, having a NASA field center named after him, and the only original Mercury astronaut to fly on the shuttle thus becoming the oldest person in space from 1998 to 2024. Glenn was an American legend having served his country faithfully defining himself as a leader in every step of his life.

posted 12-24-2024 08:21 AM               

The next cover is a very nice FDC postmarked in La Jolla where she lived for many years before dying there.

And finally a cleverly done FDC also postmarked in La Jolla.

Another good book about Sally is 'Sally Ride The First American Woman in Space"