— Items that belonged to America's first woman to fly into space are being sold to the public for the first time.

Los Angeles-based Nate D. Sanders Auctions has announced its sale of the Sally Ride Estate Collection, an offering of more than 50 lots of historical artifacts and related memorabilia closing for bids on June 26, 2025 — 42 years and two days after Ride landed from space.

"Spanning her NASA career and private life, this auction is the first time any items owned by Sally Ride have been made available for sale," reads Sanders' website.

Ride, who died in 2012, was chosen with the first class of American astronauts to include women and minorities in 1978. The auction includes Ride's "TFNG" (or "Thirty-Five New Guys") astronaut group t-shirts, as well as the correspondence she received from NASA confirming the receipt of her application to become an astronaut, the scheduling of her candidate interviews and her formal acceptance into the corps.

"I congratulate you on having been selected for the astronaut candidate program," wrote Jack Lister, NASA personnel officer, in the Jan. 16, 1978 Western Union Mailgram sent to Ride. "You are scheduled to report for duty at the Johnson Space Center on July 10, 1978."

The letter also stipulates Ride's salary as a GS-12 civil servant will be $21,883.

The auction includes Ride's temporary access badge and one of her ID badges issued to her by the Johnson Space Center.

Ride's first mission on the space shuttle Challenger, STS-7, lifted off on June 18, 1983. The auction offers Ride's documents preparing her for her first countdown, including schedules beginning three days before the launch.

Another lot offers Ride's left over invitations to the STS-7 launch, as well as the crew's pre-launch party for their friends and family on the eve of the flight.

Ride's personal items flown on board Challenger included a number of silver medallions, called "Robbins medals" after the company that minted them. The auction has six of these flown medallions, as well as similar medals from her second space shuttle mission, STS-41G, and other missions (including one flown on Apollo 11, the first mission to land humans on the moon, in 1969).

Ride wrote about her second spaceflight in October 1984 as it happened in two diaries listed as one lot in the Sanders sale. One book details her experiences leading up to launch day and the second includes her notes on what happened during the 8-day flight.

"Once in flight, Ride explains how the astronauts disposed of all manner of their trash, where they stowed various items as they unpacked, etc. She lists the food she thought was good — the shrimp cocktail, mac and cheese, cookies and vegetables, and also a shorter list of food she deemed 'not good' including cereal, canned tuna and instant breakfast; noting that she didn't eat the foil meats. She writes that the astronauts ate their meals together: 'a little hard to find appropriate time, but made prep and cleanup easier,'" reads the lot's description.

The diary also share anecdotes about her crewmates and an expansive section on observing Earth from orbit.

Other highlights from Ride's estate include two blue flight suits and a NASA "chase team" flight jacket; Ride's personal copy of the Rogers Commission report on the 1986 loss of space shuttle Challenger (Ride was a member of the panel); stamps from Ride and her partner Tam O'Shaughnessy's collection; and the certificate that accompanying Ride's posthumously-awarded Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Sanders is offering the 54 lots that comprise the Sally Ride Estate Collection as part of sale that also includes 46 other examples of space memorabilia from other consignors. Online bidding began on June 12 with no reserves and many of the lots opening between $150 and $450.

Prior to the Sanders auction, in October 2015, the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. acquired 182 objects and 24 cubic feet of documents from Ride's collection. The museum also owns the two-piece flight suit and clothing Ride wore when she became the first American woman in space.