About This Stamp
America’s first woman in space, Dr. Sally Ride (1951–2012), inspired the nation as a pioneering astronaut, brilliant physicist, and dedicated educator.
The stamp art features a colorful portrait of Ride in her light blue space suit with a dramatic depiction of a space shuttle lifting off in the background. Sketched first in charcoal and then rendered in oil paint, artist Paul Salmon’s design reflects her positivity and confident spirit, as well as the excitement and danger of space travel.
After completing her Ph.D. in physics, Ride joined NASA’s 1978 class of astronaut candidates for the agency’s new space shuttle program. She was the first woman to serve as a capsule communicator for Columbia’s second flight in 1981, communicating from the ground with both the shuttle crew in space and the flight director at Mission Control. In the spring of 1982, NASA assigned her to her first flight crew as a mission specialist.
On June 18, 1983, at 7:33 a.m., Ride realized her ultimate adventure when she launched through Earth’s atmosphere aboard space shuttle Challenger, becoming the first American woman to reach space. For six days, she worked closely with her four male crewmates, proving to the world below that women were just as adept as men in the final frontier. She completed a second successful trip to space the next year, breaking another barrier as a member of the first flight crew with two women.
Ride was the only person to sit on the investigative panels for both the Challenger and Columbia accidents. As a professor, she used her experiences in space to explain complicated physics concepts. She also coauthored six children's books about science with her partner Tam O'Shaughnessy. In 2001, Ride and O'Shaughnessy joined three friends to start a science education company, Sally Ride Science, with the goal of narrowing the gender gap in science, technology, engineering, and math.
Ride galvanized the country with her pioneering spaceflight and inspired generations of students as a physicist, astronaut, and champion of science education.
Art director Ethel Kessler designed the stamp.
The Sally Ride stamp was issued as a Forever® stamp. This Forever stamp will always be equal to the current First-Class Mail® one-ounce price.
Stamp Art Director, Designer, and Typographer
Ethel Kessler
Ethel Kessler is an award-winning designer and art director who has worked with corporations, museums, public and private institutions, professional service organizations, and now, the United States Postal Service.
After earning a B.F.A. in visual communications from the Maryland Institute College of Art, Kessler worked as a graphic designer and project manager for the exhibits division of the United States Information Agency. Her work was distributed internationally on subjects such as Immigration, Entrepreneurship, Renovation of American Cities, and the Bicentennial of 1976. She was also responsible for exhibits in Morocco, Botswana, and El Salvador.
In 1981, she established Kessler Design, Inc., for which she is creative director and designer. Clients have included the Clinton Government reorganization, the Smithsonian Institution, National Geographic Television, the National Park Service, and the American Institute of Architects.
She has been an art director for the U.S. Postal Service’s stamp development program for more than 25 years. As an art director for USPS, Kessler has been responsible for creating more than 500 stamp designs, including the Breast Cancer Research stamp illustrated by Whitney Sherman. Issued in 1998, the stamp is still on sale and has raised more $98 million for breast cancer research. Other Kessler projects include the popular and highly regarded Nature of America 120 stamp series, a collaboration with nationally acclaimed nature illustrator John Dawson, the 12-year Lunar New Year series with Kam Mak, the American Filmmaking: Behind the Scenes 10 stamps issued in 2003, a 2016 pane of stamps celebrating the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service, and the 2023 stamp honoring Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. And many, many others.
Stamp Artist
Paul Salmon
A native of Lynchburg, Virginia, Paul Salmon attended the Richmond Professional Institute of the College of William and Mary in Richmond, Virginia, earning a B.F.A. in graphic design.
After serving on active duty in the U.S. Navy for two years, Salmon began a professional career as a graphic artist with two top graphic design firms in Washington, D.C. Realizing he wanted to be a full-time illustrator, he moved to Los Angeles and was represented by the Graphic Artist Agency. Salmon traveled throughout the U.S. and Puerto Rico creating on-the-job art for training films for the Alexander Proudfoot Company.
A freelance illustrator for more than 35 years, Salmon has worked with clients such as NASA, Air & Space/Smithsonian magazine, Time-Life Books, NBC, the National Geographic Society, and various other government agencies. Three of his paintings were included in the “Artist and the Space Shuttle” exhibit at the National Air and Space Museum. As a documentary artist for NASA, Salmon was commissioned to document four space shuttle launches and the first space shuttle landing at the Kennedy Space Center. He has numerous paintings in the permanent collection at NASA.
Salmon’s art ranges from pen-and-ink drawings to full-color and mixed-media paintings. His preference is a painterly style. When he’s not painting or drawing, he enjoys playing golf. He blames his passion for the game on needing the exercise.
Salmon lives and works in Burke, Virginia. He created the stamp art for First Supersonic Flight (1997) and Gen. William “Billy” L. Mitchell (1999). Sally Ride (2018) is his third project for the Postal Service™.