Sally Ride

Sally Ride (1951–2012) was the first American woman in space and a physicist. For a long time spaceflight was regarded as something only for men, but she became the person who first opened that door. Because she was also a scientist who had studied physics deeply, she was a dependable crew member in charge of experiments and observations aboard the spacecraft.

On the reverse of the coin is engraved the image of Sally Ride standing beside a window of the Space Shuttle. And through the window, far away, Earth is captured along with her. It is like an image that transfers, just as it was, the moment of gazing at the blue Earth from inside the spacecraft.

This image holds the experience she actually had of looking down at Earth from space. As the first American woman in space, riding the Space Shuttle out beyond the sky planted in countless girls the dream that “I too can go there.”

Even in the era when she was active, women were rare in the fields of science and space. Sally Ride crossed that wall at the front, and after finishing her spaceflight she devoted herself to helping children, especially girls, feel that science was familiar and approachable. Not stopping at having taken the first step, she widened the path for those who would follow.

Gazing at the Earth outside the window on the coin, we come to feel how far the footsteps of one person who found the courage to head toward an unknown world can reach. Sally Ride is remembered today as the one who left that first footprint.