SALLY RIDE * Ride Estate Signed COA * Her NASA "TFNG" Astronaut T-Shirt * XL

SALLY RIDE'S PERSONALLY OWNED "TFNG" Extra Large (XL) RED T-SHIRT WITH RIDE ESTATE COA

First American Woman in space DR. SALLY K. RIDE personally owned size Extra Large (XL) unworn red "TFNG / We Delivered" t-shirt. While similar in style to the shirt Ride wore on her history-making debut in space during the STS-7 mission, our best guess is that this version was likely meant for Dr. Ride's husband at the time, astronaut Steven A. Hawley – also a member of the NASA astronaut Group 8 TFNG crew. The shirt was obtained from Sally Ride's estate. 

TFNG stood for "Thirty Five New Guys", the intentionally ambiguous acronym for NASA Astronaut Group 8 – although it was also colloquially known to mean "The F*cking New Guy(s)" – a phrase used to denote newcomers to a military unit. Group 8 is also known for being the first class of astronauts to include women. Astronauts Judy Resnik and Jim Buchli designed the popular class logo depicting a Space Shuttle with 35 astronauts clinging to it.

In June 1983 photos, Ride can be seen performing a variety of tasks aboard the space shuttle Challenger as crew member on the historic, six-day STS-7 mission. Ride would go on to become the first American woman to fly twice, with a lifetime total of more than 343 hours spent in space. A two-time Challenger space shuttle astronaut, she would go on to serve on the Rogers Commission, the presidential commission investigating the Challenger disaster. Ride died of pancreatic cancer in 2012.

The Sally Ride TFNG red Extra Large (XL) t-shirt is accompanied by a COPY of the COA from Mark Roesler, Chairman & CEO of CMG Worldwide, the Official Intellectual Property and Licensing Representative of the Sally Ride Estate certifying that this t-shirt (and others) were personally owned by Sally Ride. 

NOTE: This auction is only for the single red Extra Large (XL) TFNG shirt shown. The others are shown for reference only. 

Ride, the youngest American astronaut to have flown in space at just 32, was the first American woman in space, and only the third internationally after cosmonauts Valentina Tereshkova and 1963 and Svetlana Savitskaya in 1982.

Condition is as shown. NOTE: Item ships folded. Shirt appears to be unused/unworn. One of the very few personally-owned and space-related Ride items to have come to market. 

Sold as is, as shown.