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Two personal diaries handwritten by veteran NASA astronaut Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, documenting virtually every stage of the Space Shuttle Challenger mission STS-41-G, from preflight preparations and launch through eight days in orbit, landing, and post-flight debriefing. The matching green hardcover diaries, each measuring 3.5 x 5.75, are filled with Ride's handwritten notes in pencil and ink, with the first diary bearing an STS-41-G mission emblem affixed to its front cover. The first pocket diary, devoted primarily to preflight notes, checklists, and mission reminders, spans 22 handwritten pages. The second, far more extensive diary totals 92 handwritten pages and serves as Ride's private day-by-day account of life aboard Challenger, recording operational details, scientific observations, technical procedures, candid thoughts about her fellow astronauts, and vivid descriptions of what it felt like to live and work in space.
STS-41-G, launched on October 5, 1984, was among the most significant Space Shuttle missions of the decade. Ride's second and final spaceflight, it featured the first seven-person Shuttle crew, included Kathryn Sullivan's historic spacewalk as the first American woman to perform an extravehicular activity, and carried Marc Garneau, the first Canadian astronaut. Written for herself rather than for publication, Ride's journals provide an unusually intimate record of the mission, preserving both the technical demands of orbital flight and the everyday experiences rarely captured in official reports or later memoirs.
Ride chronicles the mission from liftoff onward, recording both the exhilaration of launch and the strange physical sensations of adapting to weightlessness. She recalls the "jolt" at liftoff, the "shimmering/elongated 'icicle'" visible outside the spacecraft, and her first views from orbit: "buried in darkness" before seeing a "bright orange glow" outside Challenger's windows. Among her most evocative observations is the experience of sleeping in space, noting the "strange sensation when you 1st close your eyes: feel like you're still moving (most often, for me in pitch, occasionally in roll)." Her journals also preserve nearly twenty pages devoted to viewing Earth from orbit, where she describes "a brilliant green aurora," sunrise colors that revealed "all the rainbow colors (in ROYGBIV order)," lightning storms over Indonesia, oil fires in the Persian Gulf, and landmarks ranging from the Alps and Mount Ararat to the Nile Delta, Gibraltar, Australia, and the English Channel.
Equally revealing are Ride's candid accounts of daily life aboard Challenger. She records meals, sleeping arrangements, waste management, crew humor, wake-up music, conversations with President Ronald Reagan, and countless informal moments absent from official mission records. She notes that breakfast often included "shrimp cocktail, mac & cheese, cookies and vegetables," recalls the crew answering Mission Control with a mock answering-machine message ("Hi—This is the 41G crew, we're not in right now…") and writes that after one morning's wake-up music, the astronauts responded by playing Elton John's "Rocket Man" back to CapCom. The diaries likewise document the mission's technical operations in remarkable detail, including satellite deployment, troubleshooting, repairs with the Shuttle's robotic arm, and Ride's extensive post-flight debriefing notes recorded immediately after Challenger's return to Earth.
In overall fine condition, with expected light wear. Accompanied by a letter from Mark Roesler, Chairman and CEO of CMG Worldwide and the Sally Ride Estate's licensing representative, certifying that the diaries originated from Sally Ride's estate. These remarkably detailed diaries provide an intimate firsthand record of STS-41-G, documenting the mission from preflight preparations through launch, orbital operations, landing, and post-flight debriefing in Sally Ride's own words.
