Sally Ride Statue

Garden City, New York

NASA astronaut Sally Ride (1951-2012) spent most of her life in California, and most of her astronaut career in Texas and Florida. But the first full-body statue honoring her -- the first woman astronaut (not cosmonaut) in space -- was unveiled on Long Island, New York, outside its Cradle of Aviation Museum. The reason, according to its promoters, was that the museum was built near the spot where Charles Lindbergh -- another aviation pioneer -- took off for his solo flight to Paris in 1927. Also, the Long Island statue showed that Sally's influence extended "coast to coast."

Sally Ride first flew into space on June 18, 1983, aboard the Shuttle Challenger. The sculpture, by George and Mark Lundeen, was unveiled on June 17, 2022, and depicts a smiling Sally wearing her inflight Shuttle coveralls, posed as if launching a miniature Space Shuttle from her hand. The crowd at the unveiling cheered, "Ride, Sally Ride!"