Women In Space: The Ones Who Paved the Way

"A bird cannot fly with one wing only. Human spaceflight cannot develop any further without the active participation of women."

These are the words of Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman to ever go into space. In 1963, at just 26, the Russian cosmonaut made history when she orbited Earth during the Vostok 6 mission. 

Tereshkova had no experience as a pilot but spent nearly three days in space, becoming the first woman to fly solo and the first civilian to journey to space. She spent more than 70 hours orbiting the Earth, two years after Yuri Gagarin라이브 바카라 first human-crewed flight in space.  Her spaceflight was broadcast on television and watched by citizens in the Soviet Union and Europe.

Over 500 people have flown in space, to date, but only 11 percent of them have been women. Nearly all of these women flew in the NASA program, and the rest were in the Soviet/Russian and Chinese space programmes. 

With NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and her crewmate Butch Wilmore returning to Earth on Tuesday—nine months after their planned week-long stay on the International Space Station was disrupted by a faulty Boeing Starliner—we take a look at the women, the firsts, who lit the way for those who dream beyond Earth.

Svetlana Savitskaya

It took another 19 years for a second woman to travel to space. In 1982, Soviet cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya flew aboard the Soyuz T-7 mission.

In 1984, she became the first woman to travel to space twice on the Soyuz T-12 mission. On her second trip to the Salyut 7 space station, she became the first woman to perform a spacewalk. A spacewalk is when an astronaut ventures outside their spacecraft to perform tasks in the vacuum of space, like repairing satellites or assembling space stations. 

After her space career, she entered politics. In 1989, she was elected to the Duma as a member of the Communist Party.

Sally Ride 

A bit behind the Russians, the U.S. sent its first woman to space in June 1983—32-year-old physicist Sally Ride aboard NASA라이브 바카라 Space Shuttle STS-7. She was only the third woman in space, following Soviet cosmonauts Valentina Tereshkova and Svetlana Savitskaya.

In 1978, while pursuing a doctorate in laser physics at Stanford, she was selected as one of six women astronaut candidates. That year, she and five others became part of NASA라이브 바카라 first Astronaut Class to include women.

Beyond space, Ride played tennis, volleyball, and softball. She also wrote science books for children about space exploration.

She resigned from NASA in 1987 and, in 1989, became a physics professor at the University of California.

Mae Jemison

Sally Ride inspired many, including Mae Jemison. An engineer and doctor, Jemison became the first African American woman astronaut after being selected for NASA라이브 바카라 program in 1987.

She graduated from medical school in 1981 and worked briefly as a general practitioner in Los Angeles. She then joined the Peace Corps as a medical officer in West Africa. After returning to the U.S., she applied to NASA and was one of 15 chosen from 2,000 applicants.

In 1992, she spent eight days orbiting Earth on the Space Shuttle Endeavour라이브 바카라 STS-47 mission, becoming the first Black woman in space. During the mission, she conducted experiments on motion sickness, frog fertility, and bone cells.

Kalpana Chawla 

Kalpana Chawla, an engineer, pilot, and astronaut, was the first Indian-born woman to travel to space. She spent over 30 days in space across two Space Shuttle missions.

After earning an engineering degree in India, she moved to the United States in the 1980s. She obtained a master라이브 바카라 degree from the University of Texas and a doctorate in aerospace engineering from the University of Colorado in 1988.

On November 17, 1997, Kalpana started the journey of her first space mission as a mission specialist, who coordinated various activities of the shuttle. The shuttle returned successfully on December 5. After her first flight, Chawla said, "When you look at the stars and the galaxy, you feel that you are not just from any particular piece of land, but from the solar system."

Six years later, on February 1, 2003, Chawla lost her life when Columbia broke apart during re-entry, killing all seven astronauts on board.

Chikai Mukai

Chiaki Mukai, a Japanese doctor and astronaut, became the first Asian woman in space. She earned a doctorate in medicine in 1977 and a doctorate in physiology in 1988 from Keiō University School of Medicine in Tokyo.

While working as a heart surgeon, she was selected by Japan라이브 바카라 National Space Development Agency (NASDA) in 1985 as one of three payload specialist candidates for the STS-47/Spacelab-J mission, though she did not fly.

Her first spaceflight came on July 8, 1994, as a payload specialist on the STS-65 mission aboard the space shuttle Columbia. The mission lasted 15 days before returning to Earth on July 23, 1994.

Peggy Whitson

Biochemist Peggy Whitson didn’t stop at one record, she kept raising the bar. She was the first woman to command the International Space Station (ISS) during Expedition 16 in 2007 and led again on Expedition 51 in 2017. She also holds the record for the longest total time spent in space by a woman—665 days.

In April 2008, she survived a rough landing aboard Soyuz TMA-11 when a failed module separation sent the capsule spinning off course, landing 470 km from its target.

Whitson was also the first female, nonmilitary Chief of the Astronaut Office. During her long NASA career, she completed three long-duration missions to the ISS.

After retiring from NASA in 2018, she joined Axiom Space and became commander of its second crewed mission. She flew to the ISS once again, becoming the first woman to command a private spaceflight.

Liu Yang

Liu Yang, a major in the Chinese Air Force, became China라이브 바카라 first woman in space when she launched aboard Shenzhou 9 on June 16, 2012—49 years to the day after Valentina Tereshkova라이브 바카라 historic flight. The 13-day mission was bound for China라이브 바카라 first space lab, Tiangong-1.

Liu joined the People라이브 바카라 Liberation Army in 1997 and trained as a pilot at Changchun No. 1 Flight College. She flew cargo planes and rose to the rank of major, serving as deputy head of her flight unit. In 2010, she joined China라이브 바카라 astronaut corps.

She made her second spaceflight on June 5, 2022, as part of the Shenzhou 14 mission

Anousheh Ansari

On September 18, 2006, Anousheh Ansari became the first Iranian in space and the first self-funded woman to fly to the International Space Station. She was also the fourth overall space tourist.

Ansari emigrated from Iran to the United States in 1984 as a teenager. She earned a bachelor라이브 바카라 degree in electronics and computer engineering from George Mason University in 1988 and a master라이브 바카라 in electrical engineering from George Washington University while working full-time at MCI Communications.

She co-founded Telecom Technologies, Inc., and later became the chairwoman of Prodea Systems. Through Space Adventures, a space tourism company, she arranged her journey to space.

She performed a series of experiments concerning human physiology for the European Space Agency, was interviewed from space for an astronomy show on Iranian national television, and became the first person to blog from space.