Historic Sally Ride Estate Auction Highlights a Trailblazing Life
The pioneering astronaut’s estate featured medals, memorabilia, and personal keepsakes that brought her inspiring story to life for collectors.
The legacy of Dr. Sally Ride—physicist, astronaut, author, and America’s first woman in space—resonated deeply with collectors as her estate crossed the auction block July 1, 2025, at Nate D. Sanders Auctions. The sale realized $145,666 for more than 50 lots that told the story of her remarkable life and career.
Ride made history as the first U.S. woman in space during the 1983 Challenger mission STS-7 and later flew again on STS-41-G, the first flight with two women crew members. She became much more than an astronaut. Her achievements broke barriers and inspired countless women and girls to pursue science, exploration, and leadership roles traditionally closed to them.
Among the more personal highlights was a set of childhood drawings by Ride, done in crayon and depicting her love of sports, particularly the Los Angeles Dodgers, along with a charming portrait of baseball great Hank Aaron. Also offered was her personally owned Ph.D. dissertation, a hardbound volume of her 1978 Stanford physics thesis titled “The Interaction of X-Rays With the Interstellar Medium,” completed just months after her selection for NASA astronaut training.
For space history and numismatic collectors, Ride’s gold Robbins medals drew strong prices. Her Apollo 11 space-flown Robbins medal achieved the top price of the sale at $17,690, while her STS-Columbia flown gold Robbins medal realized $13,401.
For collectors of 20th-century Americana, the auction offered a rare opportunity to own pieces tied directly to one of the century’s most inspiring figures, the woman who not only reached the stars but also forever changed the face of American space exploration.
Full results and lot details are available at NateDSanders.com.
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