Sally Ride, America’s first woman in space, now stands on the grounds of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in California, where a statue of her was unveiled Tuesday (July 4) as part of an Independence Day celebration.
Members of the Ride family, including 99-year-old mother Joyce, helped reveal the larger-than-life tribute, which is set against the rolling hills of Simi Valley, at the entrance to the library’s outdoor Peace Plaza.
“It is with great joy and a deep sense of gratitude that the Ride family joins you in celebrating Sally’s unveiling today. As her younger sister, I’ve always had the feeling that she was six feet tall and now I have proof of that,” Karen “Bear” Ride said to the small crowd that had gathered around the statue. “But here we are, looking at our old home in the San Fernando Valley, remembering it, celebrating the fact that Sally was a pioneer and to many a hero.”
The bronze sculpture depicts Ride in mid-step, reaching out with his right arm to lift a scale model of the space shuttle Challenger into the air. She is pictured as she was 40 years ago, dressed in the NASA coveralls and flight jacket she wore to her first launch.
Related: Biography of Sally Ride, the first American woman in space
“In a space agency full of pioneers, Sally Ride was a pioneer of a different kind,” said David Trulio, president and chief executive officer of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute. “This California native broke the gender barrier on June 18, 1983, when she became the first American woman in space as she launched into Challenger’s STS-7 mission with four male crewmates.”
Ride’s historic mission – and his second spaceflight, which followed a year later – took place during Reagan’s time as president. She met with him before and after the flight, and was later named by Reagan to the committee that investigated the 1986 tragedy that caused Challenger and its seven-member STS-51L crew just 73 seconds into the flight.
“Reagan has been a strong advocate of space exploration throughout his presidency, recognizing its importance not only to scientific discovery and technological advancement, but also to global leadership and national pride,” Trulio said. “Reagan believed that America had a unique responsibility to explore the frontiers of space and that doing so would inspire future generations and advance the cause of human progress.”
“It is for these reasons and more that we are so honored to unveil the Sally Ride statue on our campus today,” he said.
In addition to the statue, the event also included the debut of a song dedicated to Ride. 14-year-old Alexis Silva, whose father Izzy was the major donor for the statue’s placement in the library, performed her new single “Meant To Fly,” which opens with the words: “I feel the ground around me shaking, The numbers that count to one, I know there’s something out there waiting, somewhere closer to the sun.”
Silva co-wrote the song with Damon Elliott, an Academy Award-nominated record producer and son of Grammy Award-winning singer Dionne Warwick. Elliott also helped underwrite the statue through her KIND Music Academy, where Silva is a student.
“We will be releasing the song towards the end of this month,” Elliott said. “We hope the Ride family likes what we have presented for you.”
Additional support for the statue came from activist Gloria Steinem, the Northrop Grumman Foundation, former California first lady Maria Shriver, and the family of Mercury and Gemini astronaut Gordon Cooper, among others.
The statue was created by Colorado-based sculptors and brothers George and Mark Lundeen, in collaboration with fellow artist Joey Bainer. The same artists previously produced a statue of Apollo 13 astronaut Jack Swigert for National Statuary Hall in the United States Capitol, a monument to Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins which is located at Kennedy Space NASA Center in Florida and statues of Apollo 13 crew members James Lovell, Fred Haise and Swigert on display at Space Center Houston.
Duplicates of the Swigert and Apollo 11 statues are located at Denver International Airport in Colorado and Appleton International Airport in Wisconsin, respectively.
The statue of Ride at the Reagan Library is also a copy. An identical monument was unveiled at the Cradle of Aviation Museum in Garden City, New York in 2022.
“The world lost Sally to pancreatic cancer [11] years ago, but we haven’t lost its spirit. In fact, her spirit grows every day,” said Steven Barber, a documentary filmmaker who led the campaign to place both Ride statues. “Sally Ride is not just one monument, but it is two monuments, and her legend grows exponentially every single day.”
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