Sally Ride’s Legacy

Steven Barber Funds Monument for First American Woman in Space

By STEVE GALLUZZO  |  Sports Editor

If filmmaker Steven Barber has learned anything in his mission to honor the heroic men and women of NASA who have risked their lives for their country, it is that he must never take “no” for an answer.

When he sets his mind to something, Barber does not sleep until the project is complete and he is about to add another heroic figure to the growing list of astronauts whose achievements will be recognized forever because of Barber’s ingenuity and tenacity.

After his successful constructing of the Apollo 11 and Apollo 13 monuments at the Kennedy Space Center and the Houston Space Flight Center—of which, 4 million people visit every year, inspiring a whole new generation of Americans to reach for the stars—the patriotic Huntington Palisades resident is announcing his latest handiwork: a fully-funded Sally Ride monument to be unveiled in Long Island, New York in June.

“During this amazing journey it occurred to me that there were zero monuments to any women from NASA or science and that only two percent of all of the monuments in America represent any sort of female achievement,” Barber said to the Palisadian-Post. “I wanted to change that paradigm.”

Barber learned that 65 women have flown in space and 12,000 women have worked at NASA, yet there is not one celebratory monument or plaque dedicated to any of them.

“It’s my great hope that this monument will open the floodgates to many more high-achieving, brilliant American women who have never been highlighted before,” Barber added.

He fundraises by himself and is currently within $100,000 of his goal.

“When I first decided to do it, no one took my call,” Barber recalled. “I pitched the idea to the California Science Center … and numerous others in LA because Sally is from here but none of them were interested.

“Then I was on Fox News along with entrepreneur Mark Matson, the CEO and founder of Matson Money, and I called him up afterwards. He offered me 100 grand. I got two sponsors who both gave me six figures and that got the ball rolling.”

To make his latest dream a reality, Barber turned to the same gifted trio—brothers George and Mark Lundeen, and fellow artist Joey Bainer—who sculpted the bronze statue of Apollo 13 crew members Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert and Fred Haise stepping off the recovery helicopter onto the USS Iwo Jima.

“They started about two months ago and they’re almost done,” Barber said. “Then we’ll put Sally on her pedestal in early June. I was fortunate to do this as everything came together quickly. I’ve raised $200,000 and the monument isn’t even finished.”

Barber was surprised to learn that Ride, who died of cancer in 2012 at the age of 61, is buried with her dad near 14th and Pico at Woodlawn Cemetery, less than 10 minutes from where Barber lives. He drove to the gravesite on his Harley-Davidson.

Barber has achieved plenty in his over 60 years of life, including producing nine feature documentaries, but nothing he has ever done has given him as much joy and satisfaction as this current project has. The self-acknowledged, space junky admits it feels surreal.

“It’s pretty astounding that this will be the very first female NASA monument and the very first LGBTQ monument in history,” Barber said to the Post. “My goal is to have 1,000 young women from STEM participate in an essay contest in which they have to write a 1,000-word essay on why Sally Ride was important.”

Ride joined NASA in 1978 and became the first American woman in space in 1983. She was  the youngest U.S. astronaut to have traveled in space at age 32, until 29-year-old Hayley Arceneaux flew on SpaceX’s Inspiration4 mission in 2021.

Ride spent a total of 14 days, seven hours and 46 minutes in space.

After two flights on the space shuttle Challenger, Ride left NASA in 1987. She was married to astronaut Steven Hawley throughout her spaceflight days and years later had a private, long-term relationship with former women’s professional tennis player Tam O’Shaughnessy.

“It’s quite extraordinary and this is going to be bigger than Apollo 11 and Apollo 13 combined,” Barber said. “Good Morning America has already contacted me regarding the project. I’m still looking for one more sponsor to put their name on the plaque for the next 50 years—and I’m 100 percent sure I’ll find that sponsor.”

The monument is scheduled to be unveiled on  June 16 at the Cradle of Aviation Museum in Garden City, at a site located on property once part of Mitchell Air Force Base in Nassau County, Long Island.

The U.S. Mint is also in the process of producing Maya Angelou and Sally Ride quarters.The commemorative coins should be completed in March.

Not one to rest on his laurels, Barber is also fundraising with Charlie Duke on a monument for Apollo 16. Duke was the lunar module pilot for a successful mission in 1972. He is also collaborating with Command Module Pilot Stuart Roosa on a similar monument for Apollo 14 and Barber is determined to fund another for Apollo 8—the mission that set the stage for future moon landings by successfully completing 10 lunar orbits in 20 hours in 1968.

“My life’s mission is to do all of the Apollo monuments,” Barber said.

Barber has sent invitations to the unveiling ceremony at the aerospace museum to former presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama (who gave Ride’s partner the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Ride’s behalf in 2012), along with Kathy Hochul, the first female governor of New York.

“This doesn’t mean that any of them are going to come,” Barber said. “But they might.”

Barber is already envisioning his next breakthrough project: “Now that I’ve built the first female NASA monument in history, next I’m going to build one called ‘Hidden Figures’ depicting NASA’s first African American woman in mathematics.”