In the history of space there are female astronauts who are worth knowing, that is why today we are going to highlight them so that everyone Let's know their names and their stories.
Let's meet the pioneers in going into outer space. The first women who took that step outside our planet and, in some cases, They are not so well known despite deserving it.
female astronauts
When we think about space travel, the female astronauts who have existed throughout history do not usually come to mind. We can think of different astronauts like Neil Armstrong or some furry astronaut like the dog Laika, who would be the first living being to orbit the Earth. However, There have been female astronauts who challenged the limits of our planet and they arrived outside. Today we are going to tell their stories.
Names and stories of these cosmonauts
Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova (1963)
Since she was little, Valentina longed to fly, in 1959. He joined a skydiving club which was part of an auxiliary organization of the Soviet Air Force. Without a doubt, Valentina began to stand out from the others and with that start in the jump she would begin the great leap into space.
In 1961, The USSR wanted to get ahead of the United States in terms of sending a woman into space, she would be the first woman to reach space and therefore would end up in the history books. Both countries wanted that place. When they were looking for the best candidate for the feat, with requirements such as age or hand height as well as being good skydivers, they noticed five women.
The five entered the Air Force and underwent harsh physical and mental training. Physics, astronomy, meteorology or mathematics classes; academic talks and tough physical tests. The male colleagues, who at first did not see those five women favorably, had to change their minds and began to respect the great effort they made daily.
In the end, Valentina would be the one selected, since in addition to being politically competent, she was something that the USSR viewed favorably: "purity of communist sentiment." She had stated that she would give her life for the Komsomol. The mission she embarked on was to analyze the effects of space flight on the bodies of women and men.
Exactly the June 16, 1963, for the first time a woman left planet Earth and reached space. The first words she spoke were “Here Gaviota, here Gaviota. I see a blue stripe on the horizon: it's the Earth. That beautiful! "Everything is going splendidly."
Svetlana Savitskaya (1982)
Savitskaya's professional training already pointed to where her future was going, she entered the Moscow Aviation Institute, then worked as an aviation instructor and carried out specialization studies for airplane pilots. She qualified as a test pilot from the Ministry of Aviation Industry of the USSR and entered the Yakovlev design bureau for aircraft improvement and in 1980 she began to be part of a newly created group of women cosmonauts.
Savitskaya would perform his first flight 19 years after Valentina, a flight that would last 19 days. But this would not be her only return from the earth, but she did more, among them in 1984 she became the first woman to take a space walk. This pass lasted 3 hours and 35 minutes and with it he carried out assembly, cutting and welding work. That trip also made her the first woman to travel into space twice. Although, luckily, many women behind her would break that record.
Furthermore, as a curious fact, it would be the last soviet female astronaut, since the other cosmonauts would already make their trips as Russian citizens.
Sally Ride (1983)
Sally Ride became the first American woman to go outside of the earth's atmosphere and the third woman in the world. This physics graduate became a NASA astronaut in the late 70s, where she heard an advertisement requesting volunteers for the American space program. She would total something more than 343 hours in space.
Ride's career was multifaceted between work at the Center for International Security and Arms Control at Stanford University, investigative committees for the loss of Challenger and Columbia But she also became a professional tennis player.
Anna Lee Fisher (1984)
In 1976, Anna Lee Fisher graduated in medicine, specializing in emergency medicine, which led her to work in different hospitals around Los Angeles. Two years later she would be selected as a candidate to be an astronaut and begin the training program.
For his studies and experience in medicine supported the different tests at the Kennedy Space Center, as well as each launch and landing of the orbital flight test, where he was in the rescue helicopters. In that facet of his career he not only provided support and data as a doctor but also operational data on the rescue procedure itself if necessary.
After many years of experience working in support as a doctor, she herself would make a flight aboard the Discovery (1984). She wouldn't be the first woman in space, because she already had some women ahead of her, but she would be the first mother to reach space.
Anna Lee Fisher, throughout her career, He participated in three important NASA programs: The shuttle, the international station, and also the Orion project. She has also been featured in various promotional images, thanks to the photo series taken by John Bryson of the astronaut in her helmet and spacesuit. These snapshots have even been used by bands.
Shannon Lucid (1985)
This American biochemist began her career at NASA in 1878 and participated in 5 trips to space, one of them prolonged. She is the only American woman to have served aboard the Mir.
In 1978, NASA, in response to the anti-discrimination laws of the time, promoted several women and Lucid He became part of the Astronaut CorpsCuriously, of the six women who were selected, she was the only one who was a mother.
Her first flight was in 1985 on the STS-51-G mission of the space shuttle Discovery, although her most important flight was the mission that led her to be 188 days in space, 179 of which were aboard the Russian space station Mir. There he carried out different scientific experiments and set the challenge of the non-Russian person with the greatest number of hours in space.
In addition to being an astronaut, he was also NASA Chief Scientist and Capsule Communicator on the night shift in control of several shuttle missions.
Helen Sharman (1991)
In the early 90s, Helen Sharman became the first British woman to go into space. She is a graduate in chemistry and with a PhD from the University of London, she heard an advertisement on the radio announcing the tests for the Juno project. After deciding to appear alongside 13.000 other candidates, she would be one of those selected.
The Juno project was the Soyuz TM-12 mission that consisted of eight days, most of them on the Mir space station. This made Sharman the first woman at that station.
His tasks within the mission were related to different medical and agricultural evidence, as well as photographing the British Isles from space and be radio link with school children of his country. A way to make the space more visible for all ages.
That made Sharman begin a career as a teacher and science communicator for children and her entire career led to her being named honorary member of the Royal Society of Chemistry of the United Kingdom.
Mae Jemison (1992)
Engineer, doctor and NASA astronaut, this is how we could define Mae Jemison, which in turn marked a new first in the world of women: the first African-American woman to go into space.
Graduated from Stanford University in Chemical Engineering and African and African American studies, she did not settle and went to obtain a medical degree. After being a doctor in the Peace Corps and working as a general practitioner, she applied for a job at NASA., where he started working.
Chosen among some 2000 candidates who wanted to join NASA, Mae began her career alongside fifteen other astronauts, becoming in 1987 the first African American woman astronaut. Before flying into space, he supported other launches and software verifications on the shuttles. His only flight would be a mission from September 12 to 20, 1992, a cooperative US-Japan mission, where Jemison orbited the Earth 127 times. He would leave NASA in 1993 to found his own technology research company.
Her career and achievements have led her to be among the National Women's Hall of Fame and in the International Space Hall of Fame.
Roberta Bondar (1992)
Bondar would become the first canadian female astronaut but also, the first Canadian neurologist in space.
Before embarking on a trip to space, it was chief of space medicine at NASA. She was selected in 1983 along with other future Canadian astronauts and the following year she began her astronaut training. By then she already had a medical degree, several master's degrees in science and was a doctor in neuroscience. She had become interested in the world of skydiving and had a certificate for it. He has also been interested in the world of photography, which led her to take various photographs of nature and the earth and participate in exhibitions.
His jump into space came from the hand of a mission aboard NASA's space shuttle Discovery, where he would conduct experiments in Spacelab (a space laboratory included on the shuttle). After that mission she would continue working for NASA as director of an international group of researchers who examined data collected on space missions.
Her career has made her worthy of different honors such as Order of Canada, the Order of Ontario or the NASA Space Medal.
Ellen Ochoa (1993)
This American with Mexican grandparents became the first woman of Hispanic origin to jump into space. Her work has earned her different awards such as the NASA Exceptional Service Medal or the Hispanic Heritage Award.
Graduated in physics and with a doctorate in electrical engineering, she would become researcher at NASA Ames Research Center. She would be the co-incentor of three patents on optical systems for processing information, one of them to remove noise from images and another to recognize objects.
His jump into space was in 1993, on a mission in charge of studying the sun and the atmosphere to determine their effects on Earth. Since then she has participated in four missions to space and has accumulated more than 1000 flight hours.
Peggy Whitson (2002)
Peggy Whitson is the woman who has accumulated the most days in space, a total of 665 days, 22 hours and 22 minutes.
After working as a biochemist and laboratory technician she became a member of the US-USSR Board in Space Biology and Medicine. Her career at NASA evolved until 1996 she was selected as an astronaut and began his training.
Her first mission in 2002 consisted of a long stay aboard the International Space Station as a member of Expedition 5. On her second mission in 2007 she would be the first female commander of Expedition 16. She achieved the title of the most experienced female astronaut. from NASA. She is the one who has the record for days in space of all NASA astronauts, which led her to rank 29th of all astronauts that there has been worldwide.
