Ride

Thursday, August 18, 2022

One of the most surprising items to find on board the R/V Sally Ride is a picture of two older women standing relatively close to each other with smiles on their faces. The image, located on the bulkhead of the Aft Stairtower, gives no context to who they are, why they are memorialized on this ship or when the photo was taken. As you move into the galley, a small case contains an image of Dr. Sally Ride in her uniform and another features President Barack Obama with his arm around Dr. Tam O’Shaughnessy when she accepted the Presidential Medal of Freedom on behalf of her partner. A book co-written by the women is positioned in front of the case, and when flipping through the pages you can sense the mutual interest of the pair in promoting environmental stewardship and science education.

In preparing for this journey, I wanted to know who Dr. Ride was. What I never expected to find was a podcast episode called, ‘Loving Sally Ride.’ In fifteen minutes, Dr. Tam O’Shaughnessy tells the listener about her life as Sally Ride’s partner. She outlines their one tennis match as children, how they navigated Dr. Ride’s career at NASA, their long distance relationship, Dr. Ride’s cancer diagnosis and how she became the sponsor of the ship. In 2001, they established Sally Ride Science to help encourage young people to pursue education in the sciences, and for this purpose, they stayed closeted. After Dr. Ride passed, the world found out about their twenty-seven year old partnership. At the end of the podcast, Dr. Tam O’Shaughnessy talks about how she wished Sally Ride could’ve lived to see society and science start to become more accepting.

When I left Texas, the last thing I expected to find was a group of people who live freely as themselves. Many members of the science crew represent different communities from across the United States. Each of us came here with different expectations for what six days at sea would mean. For me, the journey on board the R/V Sally Ride has been one of the most honest and accepting experiences I’ve had as a member of a scientific community. There have been a few moments when I’ve wished Sally Ride could have been here with us, but it’s comforting to imagine how happy she would’ve been to see a group of young scientists deploying Argo Floats, seeing the Milky Way Galaxy for the first time and freaking out over bioluminescent dolphins swimming at the bow of her ship in the middle of the night. Our purpose aboard this vessel serves as a reminder that we are a part of the vision Sally Ride had for science, and because of her, we are also the next generation of science advocates and leaders.

– Brontë Heerdink